In a moment of irony, a pump failure along the antiquated Transcanyon Pipeline on Wednesday forced water conservation measures to be instituted on the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park as Congress passed the Great American Outdoors Act in a move to address the National Park System's $12 billion maintenance backlog/NPS file

Passage of the Great American Outdoors Act on Wednesday by the House of Representatives sends the legislation to President Trump, whose signature will provide both $6.5 billion to help the National Park Service deal with its maintenance backlog but also fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund with $900 million.

The $6.5 billion is to be disbursed to the Park Service over five years specifically to address items on its nearly $12 billion maintenance backlog to-do list. Just how the funds will be distributed among the 419 units of the National Park System remains to be seen. Still, the significance of the legislation cannot be minimized.

“You cannot overstate the importance of this bill and what it will mean for national parks, public lands, and communities across the country," said Theresa Pierno, president and CEO of the National Parks Conservation Association. "This is the largest investment our country has made in our national parks and public lands in more than 50 years, and it comes not a moment too soon.

“With this passage of the Great American Outdoors Act, our parks’ crumbling roads, decaying buildings and outdated water systems will be fixed, more than 100,000 people will have much-needed jobs, and every American, no matter where they live, will have more access to outdoor spaces. This bill is a conservationist’s dream."

The bill's passage also was heralded by the Chesapeake Conservancy, where CEO Joel Dunn called it "truly a historic moment for conservation in the United States, and the overwhelming positive impacts of this bill are sure to reverberate across the country and right here in the Chesapeake."

“This legislation is also critically important for our efforts to conserve 30 percent of the Chesapeake Bay watershed by 2030, and 30 percent of the nation’s lands and waters by 2030," added Dunn. "I applaud the great work of the U.S. House to swiftly take up and pass this important legislation, which is so important for nature and for the health of our people and our local economies."

At the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable, Executive Director Jessica Wahl said “(T)he outdoor recreation industry is ready to usher in the next golden age of the outdoor experiences after the House passed, in bipartisan fashion, the Great American Outdoors Act. GAOA is a major 21st century achievement and a reminder that when all sides work together, we can accomplish great things for the outdoors and the nation."

At the same time, the act will not erase all of the maintenance problems that stretch across the National Park System. 

As Traveler pointed out earlier this week, Yosemite National Park alone had roughly $645 million in backlogged maintenance at the end of FY18, Yellowstone's tally was $585.5 million, and the National Mall and Memorial Parks had nearly $655 million. 

Beyond those three parks, Grand Canyon National Park needs roughly $100 million just to repair and or replace its leaky Transcanyon Pipeline. The critical need to have that pipeline repaired was demonstrated Wednesday when the park announced that a water pump failure with the pipeline system at Roaring Springs forced conservation measures to be instituted.

"The estimated timeline for repair and replacement is unknown and water conservation measures will remain in effect for the North Rim until further notice," the park said.

Water conservation measures in effect are:

• Using low water cleaning techniques and reduction of toilet flushing
• Reduction of shower times and turning water off while brushing teeth
• No car or bus washing
• No watering of lawns or plants

As roughly half of the $12 billion backlog is tied to roads and bridges, Congress has been trying to provide additional dollars for the parks through transportation bills. However, with significant differences currently between the House and the Senate when it comes to infrastructure legislation, how soon that influx arrives is unknown.

Even with this infusion of money, the Park Service won't escape its maintenance woes. The backlog has been growing at hundreds of millions of dollars per year in recent years ($313 million during Fiscal 2018). Nearly $700 million was spent during Fiscal 2018 on maintenance projects, and still the outstanding backlog grew.

Indeed, on Wednesday the highway overpass at the Old Faithful complex in Yellowstone was closed due to structural concerns. Built in 1969, the bridge was having maintenance work undertaken (remove and replace deck drains; replace expansion joints; install new approach slabs; replace and repair concrete; remove, reset, and paint the existing bridge rails), when engineers "determined that the structural integrity of the bridge may be compromised," park staff said.

Take all that into context and it tempers the enthusiasm over the impact the Great American Outdoors Act will bring to the National Park System.

"This is a Band-Aid. It's fine, it's good to get some money, an infusion of cash, to solve some of these problems, that's great," Margaret Walls, a senior fellow at Resources For the Future, told the Traveler earlier this week. "But it doesn't really address the long-term problem, which, as you said, the deficit grows every year and they continue to add to this list of projects that need to be done.

"Unless you have a better ongoing funding situation for the parks, you're still going to run into this problem over time."