Before Reflecting Pool, algae contractor had troubled project on a trash-infested river

Source: Washington Post

A year before Greenwater Services got a $1.7 million contract to clean the algae-infected Reflecting Pool, it had received another no-bid government contract to deploy at the trash-plagued Tijuana River.

Greenwater, which is owned by a Trump donor, was hired to treat sewage in the Tijuana River with its “nanobubble technology,” a system that injects ozone into water. But the month-long water purification pilot to evaluate the technology was cut short last October when a storm flooded the river’s banks. The remnants of machinery were washed into the border river, with diesel leaking along the way, frustrating scientists and environmentalists at federal agencies who had questioned internally whether the company’s project would work in a flood-prone area.

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Phillip Musegaas, executive director of the nonprofit San Diego Coastkeeper, which obtained the emails through a Freedom of Information Act request, said local groups have long hoped for a solution to one of the nation’s worst environmental disasters, which has sickened residents, closed beaches and contaminated the air and water. Greenwater was supposed to take the nanobubble technology to the noxious hot spot — Saturn Boulevard — where the pungent water foams, an IBWC official wrote in the emails planning the project. But the company’s pilot was cut short by the storm and it never went to Saturn.

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“We were skeptical about it, but we wanted to see if it would work properly,” Musegaas said. “The fact that the whole project ended early because they let the equipment get washed away was pretty frustrating.” The company later acknowledged that the nanobubble machines could not operate continuously as intended because trash floating in the river clogged the machines.

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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/07/12/before-reflecting-pool-algae-contractor-had-troubled-project-trash-infested-river/

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These clowns apparently got favored treatment because the company owner is a Trump donor who gave Trump a free demo of this technology for his Bedminster golf course in 2024. I haven't been able to find anything on how successful the free demo was, but they weren't offered more work at Bedminster or other Trump golf courses, according to a January article with this info on what Greenwater's president said:

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2026/01/25/feds-move-on-after-1-1m-pilot-program-to-clean-tijuana-river-washed-away/