The contractor that recently renovated the Reflecting Pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial said in court documents that its faulty effort – nor vandalism – caused the peeling and leaking of the pool's new liner, The New York Times reported Friday.

The contractor, Atlantic Industrial Coatings, told the Trump administration that errors in its own work and flaws in the repair plan resulted in the pool’s new blue liner peeling and breaking loose, according to court documents reviewed by the news outlet.

The Trump administration blamed vandals for the issues and charged multiple people with vandalism of the pool, on the National Mall, in Washington, D.C., before moving to dismiss the cases in July.

The contractor said there were two main issues with the job. 

The first was that workers in some areas did not spray enough of the primer that made the layers of the liner stick together. The second, bigger issue, was that the repair plan outlined in the contract called for the layers of liner to include two chemicals that ended up being incompatible.

The top layer reached a temperature hotter than what the compound underneath could withstand, which caused the bottom layer to blister and come loose, the documents read.

Atlantic Industrial Coatings said it will still repair the pool, which is under warranty and the company is under a $14 million contract with the Trump administration, despite its mistakes. 

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.