U.S. Can't (Won't) Estimate Parks Repair Backlog

[DUreader]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-2884910,00.html



WASHINGTON (AP) - After spending $2.9 billion in
two years on a backlog of maintenance in national
parks, the Bush administration can't say how
much fixing up remains to be done.

``We've really got to get an honest handle on
what the maintenance backlog is,'' Donald
Murphy, deputy director of the National Park
Service, told a Senate subcommittee Tuesday.

Murphy said the Park Service won't have a close
estimate until a couple years from now, when it
expects to complete an inventory of manmade
structures in the national parks.

Interior Secretary Gale Norton gave President
Bush a report last week that she said represented
significant progress toward reducing the backlog -
and included a first-ever inventory of park
facilities. She said the administration had spent
$2.9 billion to help reduce an estimated $4.9
billion maintenance and repair backlog.

[RobertSeattle]

1. I always have mixed feeling about this

On the west side of Mount Rainier there used to be a road and at one point decades ago got washed out by a mudslide and never got repaired - which was a good thing. It helped make the west side of Mt Rainier much more pristine that it would be otherwise. We probably pave over too much of our National Parks anyway. Obviously we should adequately maintain the essentials though.

[hatrack]

2. Of course they don't have a "close estimate"

Just last week, they put out a glowing report on what a wonderful job ChimpCo and hacks like Gale Norton have done over the past 2.5 years to "improve" National Parks.

After that greenwash, they wouldn't DARE release any information that gave an accurate picture of what's going on with park budgets, park staffing and all of those wonderful privitization schemes bubbling on the front burner at Interior.

WHORES!!!!!!!