When algae in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool became a political flashpoint, the PR response focused on science, facts and visible proof.
For days, Erin Kramer walked around the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C., talking to anyone who would listen about nanobubble ozone technology. She joked from her home in North Carolina that she was tempted to set up a table with a sign that read, “Ask me about the algae.”
Kramer had been hired by Greenwater Services to assist with its crisis response. The tiny Ohio company had become embroiled in a complex national debate involving a green reflecting pool and a presidential donor with a felonious past.
But Kramer saw something else. She saw science.
“My focus was very clear as I got to DC, which was to help people understand the technology behind the algae remediation, separate it from the politics, separate it from everything else. Talk about the science,” she said in an interview.
Kramer, who owns Erin Kramer Consulting, was ready for the task. Her background combines both crisis and science. After about a decade in journalism, she went to work in political communications.
“I started in the (New York) governor’s office, and five weeks later, Eliot Spitzer resigned in scandal, and I was his deputy press secretary,” she recalled. “So that was kind of my first crisis.”
After that, she spent a decade in the New York District Attorney’s Office before moving to North Carolina and a stint with Duke University, where she worked extensively with research from the university’s professors. That experience with science connected her with Greenwater.
What happened with Greenwater Services?
The reflecting pool on the National Mall had become an unlikely political lightning rod. President Donald Trump hurried through a renovation of the water feature to prepare for the country’s 250th birthday. That included painting the pool dark blue and installing a new system for handling the algae — that’s where Greenwater came in.
The pool paint peeled up. Trump alleged vandalism; opponents alleged shoddy construction. Greenwater was only responsible for the water filtration, and an algae bloom did indeed turn the water green after units were taken offline for a night at the request of the National Park Service.
The units didn’t fail. The technology worked. But the green reflecting pool became a national punchline for those already inclined to dislike the president.
Kramer realized that in order to help Greenwater, she needed to be on the ground. So, she threw a bag in her car and drove up to the capital. By the time she got there, the algae had been remediated. The water was again clear.
But not everyone agreed on that reality.
“I just started walking around the pool, talking to people and listening to people,” Kramer said. “And it was like a Rorschach test. If you looked at the pool and said it was clear, you were very likely of one political affiliation. If you looked at it and said it was dirty, you were very likely of another.”
This even extended to the media, she said. In some cases, reporters would take photos of clean water, only to use week-old footage in their final reports.
For Kramer, a self-described life-long Democrat, it was a difficult experience.
“Watching the news sources that I really like, trust, and love, with good friends working for, to be able to stand next to the water, which was clear, and call it dirty was very eye-opening for me,” Kramer recalled.
But she didn’t give up.
Kramer relied on three main strategies to change the narrative around the pond: A focus on science, a stipulation of facts and persistence.
- Science
Kramer wanted to move the conversation away from whether or not the pool was green (it wasn’t) and on to how the technology was keeping the water clean — there and in polluted river environments.
This strategy proved effective when Congressman Suhas Subramanyam, a Democrat from Virginia, dropped by the pool with a snorkel and water wings, preparing to film a TikTok making fun of the dirty pool.
But Kramer grabbed him and told him, and his staff, about how environmentally sound the tech is — a topic often of interest to Democrats. He was so impressed, he changed his TikTok, even featuring Kramer herself describing the clean water.
@repsuhas Cleaning up the Reflecting Pool mess with @OversightDems #draintheswamp ♬ original sound – Congressman Subramanyam
“I reminded him that we’re the party that’s been standing up for science. Give me the courtesy of five minutes to listen to the science, and he did. And I have a huge amount of respect for him.”
- Stipulating facts
It is true that one of Greenwater Services’ investors is J.J. Cafaro, a Trump donor who was convicted of bribing Congressmen in the early 2000s. It’s a fact. And Kramer didn’t want to argue it.
“I love doing trial consulting, and one of the things that I do there is really picking out what the best arguments are, because you can’t litigate every piece of something. In court, you stipulate to certain things, and it kind of takes them off the table,” she said.
So that’s what they did with the Cafaro connection. They simply acknowledged the bare facts — Cafaro is an Ohio businessman who invested in an Ohio company. And then they returned to the science. You can see that line appear in this Wall Street Journal article.
“The investor is not involved in all of the day-to-day work, so that’s pretty much how we navigated it,” Kramer said, adding that her client fully explained their financial connection before she started her work.
- Persistence
Above all, Kramer was present. Day after day in the muggy D.C. heat, she walked around the pool, talking to anyone who looked like a reporter and anyone who would listen, from congresspeople to regular citizens.
During that process, an enduring image emerged: a bottle of crystal-clear water, freshly drawn from the pool. It made clear that this was not some murky green gunk, but water you’d drink (if you didn’t know where it came from).
“It was just diligently showing every single person that the water is clear,” she said.
The tactics worked. News outlets began publishing information on the science — including that sparkling bottle of clear water.
The takeaway
Kramer said the case study proves the importance of focusing on what you, as a practitioner, can actually impact.
“We’re not going to change people’s political minds, we’re not going to change the fact that there is a Trump donor involved, and that just naturally sets it up for a certain narrative. What we can change is the piece that people are talking about.”
Above all, however, Kramer hopes her work helps improve the reflecting pool — and water quality across the country — for years to come.
“I do think if, if years from now, whatever happens politically, if the pool is maintaining a nice clean water, I will be so happy if I had any piece in keeping that like a lasting success.”
Allison Carter is editorial director of PR Daily and Ragan.com. Follow her on LinkedIn.
The post Inside the PR response to the Reflecting Pool algae controversy appeared first on PR Daily.
