On their way to the U.S. Capitol’s Independence Day celebration, thousands of people today are likely to pass John J. Pershing Park, a concrete oasis, fountain and pool at the corner of 14th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, one block from the White House.
What they would have found there Tuesday was a putrid mess — water turned dark green with algae, the floating body of a dead rat and what looked to be a bookbag sunken to the bottom.
Even the ducks that frequent the National Park Service-managed commons had bailed for a less spoiled setting.
“I think it looks a little gross,” said Shelli Calland, a regular who works two blocks away. “The color is disturbingly green for water.”
Named for John Joseph Pershing, general of the armies during World War I, the park offers a convenient respite site for tourists, a comfortable lunch setting for workers and a shaded base camp for the homeless.
But the park’s 20-year-old fountain has no filtration system, and it doesn’t take long after it’s drained, scrubbed and refilled for the water to turn a slimy green.
Leila Abrar, spokeswoman with the D.C. Health Department, said Tuesday the city would immediately send inspectors to the park and work with the NPS to clean it up.
Pershing Park is kitty-corner to the John A. Wilson Building, the District’s city hall.
“We will take immediate action on this one,” Abrar said.
Park Service employees were seen sprucing up the park Tuesday shortly after a reporter with The Examiner started making phone calls.
NPS spokesman Bill Line said the agency performs monthly pest eradication at Pershing, and regularly drops chlorine tablets into the fountain. The algae growth, he said, is worse during the warmer months.
