A federal judge seemed hesitant on Thursday to order work on the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool immediately halted and appeared eager to sort out how fundamentally the project — a top priority for President Trump — would alter the site.
During a hearing in Washington, Judge Carl J. Nichols asked whether the work underway in the pool’s basin could be reversed or undone should he ultimately find that it had been undertaken illegally.
The suit was brought by the Cultural Landscape Foundation, a nonprofit group focused on preserving historical heritage sites. The foundation sued after the Trump administration launched efforts to reline and repaint the pool blue, in what preservation and architectural groups have called the latest affront to Washington’s historical aesthetic.
This lawsuit is focused on the pool’s new color, which Mr. Trump said he chose himself. The group has asked Judge Nichols to stop work immediately, even while its suit proceeds.
Joseph Mead, a lawyer representing the organization, told Judge Nichols that the Trump administration had forged ahead without seeking approval for the project, in violation of the National Historic Preservation Act. He said the law bars the government from fundamentally changing the appearance of major landmarks without consulting preservation experts and other parties with an interest in the sites.
John Karl Heise, a Justice Department lawyer, told Judge Nichols that the changes were small, designed to deter algae growth and stop water from leaking out through the concrete bed, which was last renovated in 2012. Because the pool is not being fundamentally altered, he argued that the government was justified in using a streamlined process with minimal consultation.
He added that there was no need to halt the resurfacing midstream. If the judge later found the new color was applied improperly, he said, the pool could be repainted to match its original gray. But he conceded that other parts of the project, such as sections that had been coated with epoxy, could be more difficult to reverse.
The Reflecting Pool, built in 1922, has been the backdrop for gatherings that shaped American history. But it has also been plagued by leaks and ugly algae blooms, which government engineers have spent decades trying to fix.
The repair work at the center of this lawsuit began April 6, after the Trump administration gave a no-bid contract to a Virginia firm called Atlantic Industrial Coatings. Their task: Spread a waterproofing compound on the pool’s gray concrete floor, seal leaks between its huge slabs and tint the whole thing what Mr. Trump described as “American flag blue.”
That contract is expected to cost $13.1 million, far more than the $1.8 million President Trump initially promised. The New York Times has reported that Interior Department staff members have raised concerns about the quality and speed of the work.
Mr. Heise, the Justice Department lawyer, told Judge Nichols that the “north star and touchstone of the Reflecting Pool is reflectivity,” and that the color and coating of the basin were essentially irrelevant if the water continued to mirror the nearby monuments.
“It’s just opposing the change for the sake of opposing the change,” he said of the case.
Judge Nichols, a Trump appointee, pressed lawyers from both sides on what appeared to be various hypothetical compromises.
He asked if it were “technologically possible to return the pool to its former state” if he ultimately found the government’s conduct was “illegal” or “insufficient.” He asked Mr. Mead if the Trump administration could skip consultations if, in the end, the finished pool “looks really close to how it was before.”
Mr. Mead noted that Mr. Trump himself has described the project as a significant change.
“I think we can take the president at his word on that,” he said.
He stressed that the Trump administration could have avoided getting tied up in the lawsuit altogether if the Interior Department had gone through the approval process set by Congress.
“If the government’s position is that it’d be awful for the pool to be empty for the 250th, that’s their doing,” he said, referring to the 250th anniversary celebration Mr. Trump has planned to be held in the capital this year.
