Another Scathing Aramark Yosemite Report
Posted: Sat Aug 10, 2024 8:06 pm
Laura Bliss Writer and Editor:
https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2024 ... mark-mess/Today Bloomberg Businessweek published my investigation into how Yosemite, the birthplace of the national parks, has become more dangerous for people and wildlife alike on the watch of Aramark, the private contractor that runs most visitor services.
The story stems from a trip I took to Yosemite in February. Half Dome and Bridalveil were sublime as ever. But in the developed areas, something off. It took my parents hours to get into their hotel room. Dinner was disheveled. Construction sites were left open & dimly lit.
In some ways this isn't surprising. The National Park Service has $21 billion maintenance backlog. What I didn't understand was why NPS would allow Aramark, the company contracted to run the hotels and restaurants, to do such a lackluster job.
Six months, hundreds of pages of documents and ~50 phone calls later, I now know that underwhelming hospitality is the least of far more serious problems with Aramark. Chemical spills, rotted buildings, a ceiling collapse, indoor bears: welcome to the past few years at Yosemite.
I met Erin Rau, whose employment with Aramark last summer ended not long after she fell seriously ill. Mice infested her tent cabin. When a roommate complained, managers supplied traps, a mask, gloves and wipes, leaving them to sort out the rest. Turned out there was a hole in the floor.
An ER doctor later told her she likely had hantavirus, a highly fatal rare disease transmitted by mice. “It’s really unsafe to be working there,” Rau remembers a nurse saying. “We get lots of people that get into really bad situations.”
Rau recovered, but dangerous conditions have persisted. At the Ahwahnee, a chunk of ceiling fell on a worker last year. In June, an employee was told to spray bleach on a rat infestation without PPE, releasing fumes that caused another worker to break out in hives, per an eyewitness.
In 2021 several bears had to be euthanized after repeatedly breaking into a food cooler and then wandering into a park hotel. In 2022, Aramark employees spilled 500 gallons of glycol less than 500 feet from the Merced River.
Aramark has contracts in other national parks. Similar problems in Oregon's Crater Lake (a 5,000 gallon sewage spill, visitor injuries) led to NPS transferring its contract to a new concessionaire earlier this year.
But despite years of subpar evaluations in Yosemite, so far, the government has kept the company in Yosemite. Why? I found some answers. I realize there's, um, some other news today but it would mean so much if you gave the story a read. Thanks to Jeff Muskus for the edit and Jordi Ng for the art direction.
