Building maintenance needs exceed $6.1 billion, while water and wastewater treatment systems together account for nearly another $2.5 billion. Image: GotAnotherPhoto/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffThe deferred maintenance backlog at the National Park Service increased over the last decade to $23.3 billion—by four-tenths in inflation-adjusted dollars and doubling in uninflated dollars—,” says a report for Congress, adding that “unmet maintenance needs may damage park resources, adversely affect visitors’ enjoyment of the parks, and jeopardize safety.”
While some of that increase is due to a change in the way the agency accounts for deferred maintenance, “as time goes by and needed repairs are not made, the rate at which such assets deteriorate is accelerated and can result in ‘a spiraling burden,’” says a Congressional Research Service report.
“Many NPS assets— such as visitor centers, roads, and other assets—were constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s or as part of NPS’s Mission 66 infrastructure initiative in the 1950s and 1960s,” it says. “As these structures have reached or exceeded the end of their anticipated life spans, unfunded costs of repair or replacement have contributed to the DM backlog.”
Building maintenance needs exceed $6.1 billion, while water and wastewater treatment systems together account for nearly another $2.5 billion. Paved roads account for most of the rest at nearly $7.4 billion, but trails, housing, unpaved roads and campgrounds also have backlogs.
The need “is distributed unevenly among states and territories, with California, Wyoming, the District of Columbia, and Virginia having the largest amounts. The amounts also vary among individual park units,” it adds.
It noted that the NPS, along with other land management agencies that also have deferred maintenance, received a special funding boost from the 2020 Great American Outdoors Act, which directed some revenues from energy development on public lands toward those backlogs. The agency also receives funding from discretionary appropriations, allocations from the Department of Transportation, park entrance and concessions fees, donations, and other sources.
“Often it is not possible to determine the total amount of funding from these sources that NPS has allocated each year to address deferred maintenance, because NPS does not aggregate these amounts in its budget reporting,” it says.
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