107TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 695
AN ACT
To establish the Oil Region National Heritage
Area.
107TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 695
AN ACT
To establish the Oil Region National Heritage Area.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; DEFINITIONS.
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the
‘‘Oil Region National Heritage Area Act’’.
(b) DEFINITIONS.—For the purposes of this Act, the
following definitions shall apply:
(1) HERITAGE
AREA.—The term ‘‘Heritage
Area’’ means the Oil Region National Heritage Area
established in section 3(a).
(2) MANAGEMENT ENTITY.—The term ‘‘man-
agement entity’’ means the Oil Heritage Region,
Inc., or its successor entity.
(3) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means
the Secretary of the Interior.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.
(a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds the following:
(1) The Oil Region of Northwestern Pennsyl-
vania, with numerous sites and districts listed on the
National Register of Historic Places, and designated
by the Governor of Pennsylvania as one of the State
Heritage Park Areas, is a region with tremendous
physical and natural resources and possesses a story
of State, national, and international significance.
(2) The single event of Colonel Edwin Drake’s
drilling of the world’s first successful oil well in
1859 has affected the industrial, natural, social, and
political structures of the modern world.
(3) Six national historic districts are located
within the State Heritage Park boundary, in
Emlenton, Franklin, Oil City, and Titusville, as well
as 17 separate National Register sites.
(4) The Allegheny River, which was designated
as a component of the national wild and scenic riv-
ers system in 1992 by Public Law 102–271, tra-
verses the Oil Region and connects several of its
major sites, as do some of the river’s tributaries
such as Oil Creek, French Creek, and Sandy Creek.
(5) The unspoiled rural character of the Oil Re-
gion provides many natural and recreational re-
sources, scenic vistas, and excellent water quality for
people throughout the United States to enjoy.
(6) Remnants of the oil industry, visible on the
landscape to this day, provide a direct link to the
past for visitors, as do the historic valley settle-
ments, riverbed settlements, plateau developments,
farmlands, and industrial landscapes.
(7) The Oil Region also represents a cross sec-
tion of American history associated with Native
Americans, frontier settlements, the French and In-
dian War, African Americans and the Underground
Railroad, and immigration of Swedish and Polish in-
dividuals, among others.
(8) Involvement by the Federal Government
shall serve to enhance the efforts of the Common-
wealth of Pennsylvania, local subdivisions of the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, volunteer organiza-
tions, and private businesses, to promote the cul-
tural, national, and recreational resources of the re-
gion in order to fulfill their full potential.
(b) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this Act is to enhance
a cooperative management framework to assist the Com-
monwealth of Pennsylvania, its units of local government,
and area citizens in conserving, enhancing, and inter-
preting the significant features of the lands, water, and
structures of the Oil Region, in a manner consistent with
compatible economic development for the benefit and in-
spiration of present and future generations in the Com-
monwealth of Pennsylvania and the United States.
SEC. 3. OIL REGION NATIONAL HERITAGE AREA.
(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—There is hereby established
the Oil Region National Heritage Area.
(b) BOUNDARIES.—The boundaries of the Heritage
Area shall include all of those lands depicted on a map
entitled ‘‘Oil Region National Heritage Area’’, numbered
OIRE/20,000 and dated October, 2000. The map shall be
on file in the appropriate offices of the National Park
Service. The Secretary of the Interior shall publish in the
Federal Register, as soon as practical after the date of
the enactment of this Act, a detailed description and map
of the boundaries established under this subsection.
(c) MANAGEMENT ENTITY.—The management entity
for the Heritage Area shall be the Oil Heritage Region,
Inc., the locally based private, nonprofit management cor-
poration which shall oversee the development of a manage-
ment plan in accordance with section 5(b).
SEC. 4. COMPACT.
To carry out the purposes of this Act, the Secretary
shall enter into a compact with the management entity.
The compact shall include information relating to the ob-
jectives and management of the area, including a discus-
sion of the goals and objectives of the Heritage Area, in-
cluding an explanation of the proposed approach to con-
servation and interpretation and a general outline of the
protection measures committed to by the Secretary and
management entity.
SEC. 5. AUTHORITIES AND DUTIES OF MANAGEMENT ENTI-
TY.
(a) AUTHORITIES OF THE MANAGEMENT ENTITY.—
The management entity may use funds made available
under this Act for purposes of preparing, updating, and
implementing the management plan developed under sub-
section (b). Such purposes may include—
(1) making grants to, and entering into cooper-
ative agreements with, States and their political sub-
divisions, private organizations, or any other person;
(2) hiring and compensating staff; and
(3) undertaking initiatives that advance the
purposes of the Heritage Area.
(b) MANAGEMENT PLAN.—The management entity
shall develop a management plan for the Heritage Area
that—
(1) presents comprehensive strategies and rec-
ommendations for conservation, funding, manage-
ment, and development of the Heritage Area;
(2) takes into consideration existing State,
county, and local plans and involves residents, public
agencies, and private organizations working in the
Heritage Area;
(3) includes a description of actions that units
of government and private organizations have agreed
to take to protect the resources of the Heritage
Area;
(4) specifies the existing and potential sources
of funding to protect, manage, and develop the Her-
itage Area;
(5) includes an inventory of the resources con-
tained in the Heritage Area, including a list of any
property in the Heritage Area that is related to the
themes of the Heritage Area and that should be pre-
served, restored, managed, developed, or maintained
because of its natural, cultural, historic, recreational,
or scenic significance;
(6) recommends policies for resource manage-
ment which consider and detail application of appro-
priate land and water management techniques, in-
cluding, but not limited to, the development of inter-
governmental and interagency cooperative agree-
ments to protect the Heritage Area’s historical, cul-
tural, recreational, and natural resources in a man-
ner consistent with supporting appropriate and com-
patible economic viability;
(7) describes a program for implementation of
the management plan by the management entity, in-
cluding plans for restoration and construction, and
specific commitments for that implementation that
have been made by the management entity and any
other persons for the first 5 years of implementa-
tion;
(8) includes an analysis of ways in which local,
State, and Federal programs, including the role for
the National Park Service in the Heritage Area, may
best be coordinated to promote the purposes of this
Act;
(9) lists any revisions to the boundaries of the
Heritage Area proposed by the management entity
and requested by the affected local government; and
(10) includes an interpretation plan for the
Heritage Area.
(c) DEADLINE; TERMINATION OF FUNDING.—
(1) DEADLINE.—The management entity shall
submit the management plan to the Secretary within
2 years after the funds are made available for this
Act.
(2) TERMINATION OF FUNDING.—If a manage-
ment plan is not submitted to the Secretary in ac-
cordance with this subsection, the management enti-
ty shall not qualify for Federal assistance under this
Act.
(d) DUTIES OF MANAGEMENT ENTITY.—The man-
agement entity shall—
(1) give priority to implementing actions set
forth in the compact and management plan;
(2) assist units of government, regional plan-
ning organizations, and nonprofit organizations in—
(A) establishing and maintaining interpre-
tive exhibits in the Heritage Area;
(B) developing recreational resources in
the Heritage Area;
(C) increasing public awareness of and ap-
preciation for the natural, historical, and archi-
tectural resources and sites in the Heritage
Area;
(D) the restoration of any historic building
relating to the themes of the Heritage Area;
(E) ensuring that clear, consistent, and en-
vironmentally appropriate signs identifying ac-
cess points and sites of interest are put in place
throughout the Heritage Area; and
(F) carrying out other actions that the
management entity determines to be advisable
to fulfill the purposes of this Act;
(3) encourage by appropriate means economic
viability in the Heritage Area consistent with the
goals of the management plan;
(4) consider the interests of diverse govern-
mental, business, and nonprofit groups within the
Heritage Area; and
(5) for any year in which Federal funds have
been provided to implement the management plan
under subsection (b)—
(A) conduct public meetings at least annu-
ally regarding the implementation of the man-
agement plan;
(B) submit an annual report to the Sec-
retary setting forth accomplishments, expenses
and income, and each person to which any
grant was made by the management entity in
the year for which the report is made; and
(C) require, for all agreements entered into
by the management entity authorizing expendi-
ture of Federal funds by any other person, that
the person making the expenditure make avail-
able to the management entity for audit all
records pertaining to the expenditure of such
funds.
(e) PROHIBITION ON THE ACQUISITION OF REAL
PROPERTY.—The management entity may not use Fed-
eral funds received under this Act to acquire real property
or an interest in real property.
SEC. 6. DUTIES AND AUTHORITIES OF THE SECRETARY.
(a) TECHNICAL AND FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—
(A) OVERALL ASSISTANCE.—The Secretary
may, upon the request of the management enti-
ty, and subject to the availability of appropria-
tions, provide technical and financial assistance
to the management entity to carry out its du-
ties under this Act, including updating and im-
plementing a management plan that is sub-
mitted under section 5(b) and approved by the
Secretary and, prior to such approval, providing
assistance for initiatives.
(B) OTHER ASSISTANCE.—If the Secretary
has the resources available to provide technical
assistance to the management entity to carry
out its duties under this Act (including updat-
ing and implementing a management plan that
is submitted under section 5(b) and approved
by the Secretary and, prior to such approval,
providing assistance for initiatives), upon the
request of the management entity the Secretary
shall provide such assistance on a reimbursable
basis. This subparagraph does not preclude the
Secretary from providing nonreimbursable as-
sistance under subparagraph (A).
(2) PRIORITY.—In assisting the management
entity, the Secretary shall give priority to actions
that assist in the—
(A) implementation of the management
plan;
(B) provision of educational assistance and
advice regarding land and water management
techniques to conserve the significant natural
resources of the region;
(C) development and application of tech-
niques promoting the preservation of cultural
and historic properties;
(D) preservation, restoration, and reuse of
publicly and privately owned historic buildings;
(E) design and fabrication of a wide range
of interpretive materials based on the manage-
ment plan, including guide brochures, visitor
displays, audio-visual and interactive exhibits,
and educational curriculum materials for public
education; and
(F) implementation of initiatives prior to
approval of the management plan.
(3) DOCUMENTATION
OF
STRUCTURES.—The
Secretary, acting through the Historic American
Building Survey and the Historic American Engi-
neering Record, shall conduct studies necessary to
document the industrial, engineering, building, and
architectural history of the Heritage Area.
(b) APPROVAL AND DISAPPROVAL OF MANAGEMENT
PLANS.—The Secretary, in consultation with the Governor
of Pennsylvania, shall approve or disapprove a manage-
ment plan submitted under this Act not later than 90 days
after receiving such plan. In approving the plan, the Sec-
retary shall take into consideration the following criteria:
(1) The extent to which the management plan
adequately preserves and protects the natural, cul-
tural, and historical resources of the Heritage Area.
(2) The level of public participation in the de-
velopment of the management plan.
(3) The extent to which the board of directors
of the management entity is representative of the
local government and a wide range of interested or-
ganizations and citizens.
(c) ACTION FOLLOWING DISAPPROVAL.—If the Sec-
retary disapproves a management plan, the Secretary shall
advise the management entity in writing of the reasons
for the disapproval and shall make recommendations for
revisions in the management plan. The Secretary shall ap-
prove or disapprove a proposed revision within 90 days
after the date it is submitted.
(d) APPROVING CHANGES.—The Secretary shall re-
view and approve amendments to the management plan
under section 5(b) that make substantial changes. Funds
appropriated under this Act may not be expended to im-
plement such changes until the Secretary approves the
amendments.
(e) EFFECT OF INACTION.—If the Secretary does not
approve or disapprove a management plan, revision, or
change within 90 days after it is submitted to the Sec-
retary, then such management plan, revision, or change
shall be deemed to have been approved by the Secretary.
SEC. 7. DUTIES OF OTHER FEDERAL ENTITIES.
Any Federal entity conducting or supporting activi-
ties directly affecting the Heritage Area shall—
(1) consult with the Secretary and the manage-
ment entity with respect to such activities;
(2) cooperate with the Secretary and the man-
agement entity in carrying out their duties under
this Act and, to the maximum extent practicable, co-
ordinate such activities with the carrying out of such
duties; and
(3) to the maximum extent practicable, conduct
or support such activities in a manner that the man-
agement entity determines shall not have an adverse
effect on the Heritage Area.
SEC. 8. SUNSET.
The Secretary may not make any grant or provide
any assistance under this Act after the expiration of the
15-year period beginning on the date of the enactment of
this Act.
SEC. 9. USE OF FEDERAL FUNDS FROM OTHER SOURCES.
Nothing in this Act shall preclude the management
entity from using Federal funds available under Acts other
than this Act for the purposes for which those funds were
authorized.
SEC. 10. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
(a) IN GENERAL.—There are authorized to be appro-
priated to carry out this Act—
(1) not more than $1,000,000 for any fiscal
year; and
(2) not more than a total of $10,000,000.
(b) 50 PERCENT MATCH.—Financial assistance pro-
vided under this Act may not be used to pay more than
50 percent of the total cost of any activity carried out with
that assistance.
Passed the House of Representatives September 10,
2001.
Attest:
Clerk.