[DOCID: f:sr286.110]
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Calendar No. 638
110th Congress Report
SENATE
2d Session 110-286
======================================================================
KEWEENAW NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK APPROPRIATIONS
_______
April 10, 2008.--Ordered to be printed
_______
Mr. Bingaman, from the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources,
submitted the following
R E P O R T
[To accompany S. 189]
The Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, to which was
referred the bill (S. 189) to decrease the matching funds
requirement and authorize additional appropriations for
Keweenaw National Historical Park in the State of Michigan,
having considered the same, reports favorably thereon without
amendment and recommends that the bill do pass.
Purpose
The purpose of S. 189 is to amend the enabling legislation
for the Keweenaw National Historical Park in Michigan to
decrease the non-Federal matching fund requirement from 4:1 to
1:1, and to increase the authorized funding level for
development from $25 million to $50 million, and for financial
and technical assistance from $3 million to $25 million.
Background and Need
Keweenaw National Historical Park, located on Michigan's
Upper Peninsula, was established by Congress in 1992 to
preserve and interpret the natural and cultural resources
related to the copper mining industry of the Keweenaw
Peninsula. When the park was established, $25 million was
authorized for development at the park, and $3 million was
authorized for Federal grants to owners of property within the
park containing significant historic or cultural resources,
subject to a requirement that any Federal funding be matched on
a four-to-one basis with non-Federal funds.
This matching requirement exceeds the standard applied for
most Federal matches, which are usually on a one-to-one basis.
S. 189 would amend Public Law 102-543, the park's enabling
legislation, to reduce the non-Federal match requirements from
four-to-one to one-to-one, and to increase the authorization
for development at the park from $25 million to $50 million,
and to increase the authorization for financial and technical
assistance from $3 million to $25 million.
The legislation would also increase the annual
authorization for the park's advisory commission from $100,000
annually to $250,000 and eliminate a requirement that Federal
funding for the commission be matched with non-Federal funds.
Legislative History
S. 189 was introduced by Senator Levin on January 4, 2007.
The Subcommittee on National Parks held a hearing on the bill
on September 27, 2007. (S. Hrg. 110-266.) At its business
meeting on September 27, 2008, the Committee on Energy and
Natural Resources ordered S. 189 favorably reported, without
amendment.
Committee Recommendation
The Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, in open
business session on January 30, 2008, by a voice vote of a
quorum present, recommends that the Senate pass S. 189.
Section-by-Section Analysis
Section 1(a) amends section 4(d) of the enabling
legislation for Keweenaw National Historical Park (Public Law
102-543; 16 U.S.C. 410yy-3) to eliminate a provision that
prohibited the Secretary of the Interior from acquiring lands
contaminated with hazardous substances. The National Park
Service testified at the Subcommittee hearing that existing
agency policies ensure that any acquired lands must be
thoroughly examined for environmental contamination, but
eliminating this provision would give the Park Service more
flexibility to acquire lands which do not pose environmental
threats.
Subsection (b) amends section 8(b) of the park's enabling
legislation to decrease the matching requirement from four-to-
one (non-Federal funds to Federal funds) to one-to-one.
Subsection (c) amends section 10 of the enabling
legislation to increase the appropriation ceiling for land
acquisition from $25 million to $50 million, and to increase
the ceiling for the Secretary providing financial and technical
assistance form $3 million to $25 million. The subsection also
increases the annual authorization for the park's advisory
commission from $100,000 to $250,000.
Cost and Budgetary Considerations
The following estimate of costs of this measure has been
provided by the Congressional Budget Office:
S. 189--A bill to decrease the matching funds requirement and authorize
additional appropriations for the Keweenaw National Historical
Park in the state of Michigan
S. 189 would authorize additional appropriations for the
Keweenaw National Historical Park in Michigan. The bill also
would repeal an existing prohibition against acquiring
environmentally contaminated lands for the park. Assuming
appropriation of the authorized amounts, CBO estimates that
implementing S. 189 would cost $24 million over the 2009-2013
period. An additional $26 million would be spent after 2013 for
park development, including possible environmental cleanup and
restoration of contaminated lands if any are acquired as a
result of this legislation. Enacting S. 189 would not affect
revenues or direct spending.
S. 189 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector
mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA)
and would impose no costs on state, local, or tribal
governments.
The legislation would raise the authorization levels for
activities carried out at Keweenaw National Historical Park,
including:
<bullet> Increasing the cap on assistance to
nonfederal property owners from $3 million (all of
which has already been appropriated) to $25 million,
<bullet> Raising the annual authorization of
appropriations for the Keweenaw National Historical
Park Advisory Commission from $100,000 to $250,000, and
<bullet> Raising the ceiling for park development
from $25 million to $50 million. CBO estimates that
raising the park's authorizations would cost $24
million over the 2009-2013 period and $26 million over
the 2013-2018 period.
Nearly all spending over the first five years would be for
assistance to nonfederal entities that would use the funds to
restore and interpret historic properties within the park's
boundaries. A small portion of the five-year costs (less than
$500,000 a year) would be for routine annual expenses to
operate and maintain newly developed properties and to provide
the advisory commission with the additional funds of $150,000 a
year authorized by the bill. That annual cost would continue in
subsequent years.
We estimate that little of the additional $25 million
authorized for development would be appropriated before 2014
because we expect that development activities at the park would
not exhaust the existing $25 million authorization until that
time. (Most of the existing ceiling has not yet been
appropriated.) Spending of the $25 million existing
authorization could occur somewhat more quickly over the next
year or two under the bill because the National Park Service
(NPS) might use some of that amount to clean up or restore
contaminated lands, which could be acquired under the bill. We
expect that the NPS would minimize such costs, however, by
avoiding the purchase of severely contaminated sites and by
requiring cleanup of most sites before acquisition, resulting
in no significant change in development costs over time.
In addition, the federal government could be liable for
injuries caused by contamination on lands acquired as a result
of this bill, but CBO has no basis for estimating such costs,
if any.
The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Deborah Reis.
The estimate was reviewed by Theresa Gullo, Deputy Assistant
Director for Budget Analysis.
Regulatory Impact Evaluation
In compliance with paragraph 11(b) of rule XXVI of the
Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee makes the following
evaluation of the regulatory impact which would be incurred in
carrying out S. 189. The bill is not a regulatory measure in
the sense of imposing Government-established standards or
significant economic responsibilities on private individuals
and businesses.
No personal information would be collected in administering
the program. Therefore, there would be no impact on personal
privacy.
Little, if any, additional paperwork would result from the
enactment of S. 189, as ordered reported.
Congressionally Directed Spending
In accordance with paragraph 4(b) of rule XLIV of the
Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee provides the
following identification of congressionally directed spending
items contained in the bill, as reported:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Section Provision Member
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1(C)............................ Authorization of Sen. Levin
appropriations.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Executive Communications
The testimony provided by the National Park Service at the
September 27, 2007 subcommittee hearing on S. 189 follows:
Statement of Daniel N. Wenk, Deputy Director, National Park Service,
Department of the Interior
Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, thank you for
the opportunity to appear before you today to present the
Department of the Interior's views on S. 189, a bill to remove
the restriction on land acquisition, to decrease the matching
funds requirement and to authorize additional appropriations
for Keweenaw National Historical Park in the State of Michigan.
The Department supports enactment of this legislation with
one amendment described later in this statement.
S. 189 would amend P.L. 102-543 to remove the restriction
on acquiring contaminated property and decrease the ratio for
matching fund requirements. It also would increase the
appropriation ceilings for development and for financial and
technical assistance to owners of non-Federal property, and
increase the ceiling for the operations of the Keweenaw
National Historical Park Advisory Commission. These changes
would enable Keweenaw National Historical Park to acquire land
in a manner consistent with other national park units, to
better preserve nationally significant resources inside as well
as related resources outside of park boundaries, and to better
implement the operation of the park's Advisory Commission as
envisioned for this ground-breaking partnership park.
The Keweenaw National Historical Park was authorized by
Congress in 1992 through Public Law 102-543 to preserve a
portion of the Keweenaw Peninsula in the State of Michigan
where the prehistoric, aboriginal mining of copper occurred.
Artifacts made from this copper were traded as far south as
Alabama.
The ensuing copper mining industry ``pioneered deep shaft,
hard rock mining, milling, and smelting techniques and
advancements in related mining technologies later used
throughout the world.'' The picture of copper mining is best
represented in the Village of Calumet, the former Calumet and
Hecla Mining Company properties, and the former Quincy Mining
Company properties. The Calumet National Historic Landmark
District and the Quincy Mining Company National Historic
Landmark District comprise the vast majority of the land within
park boundaries. However, other resources outside the park
boundary significantly contribute to ``interpret[ing] the
historic synergism between the geological, aboriginal,
sociological, cultural, technological, and corporate forces
that relate the story of copper on the Keweenaw Peninsula.''
The park has been unable to acquire key historic sites
within the park boundaries because of the park-specific
restriction in Section 4(d) of Public Law 102-543 on acquiring
contaminated property. For example, the park was unable to
pursue acquisition of the ``Coppertown'' site, which includes
the historic Calument & Hecla (C&H) Pattern Shop, the C&H
Pattern Storage Warehouse, and the associated lands
contributing to the cultural landscape of Calumet's core
industrial area, due to contamination revealed in environmental
site assessments. This acquisition restriction stopped the
National Park Service (NPS) from further action on these
important sites despite the limited extent of contaminants at
this property and the desire of the park's Advisory Commission
and the local community to consider their acquisition.
Existing Department of the Interior policies and procedures
require a thorough environmental assessment and review prior to
acquisition of real property, with an additional review and
professional assessment of those areas found to possess
contamination issues. Those areas are then subjected to a
graduated approval process, beginning at the Regional Director
level, going through the NPS Director, and on up to the
Secretary of the Interior, depending on the projected costs of
remediation.
The park-specific ban from NPS ownership of contaminated
property applies even when mitigation has been undertaken to
meet U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Michigan
Department of Environmental Quality requirements. This ban also
prevents the park from considering alternatives such as
acquiring preservation easements. The current restriction would
prohibit acquisition even after a common remediation action
such as capping contaminated soils is completed since the site
would still contain contaminants. S. 189 would strike Section
4(d) of Public Law 102-543, allowing the NPS to acquire or to
enter into partnerships for the acquisition of at-risk sites
and other historic properties within the park boundaries while
still requiring the areas to be subject to existing Servicewide
safeguards. Those safeguards include a requirement in the
National Park Service acquisition regulations that a
contaminants study be prepared before the acquisition of park
lands. In addition, the NPS will consider requiring
indemnification agreements from current owners before
acquisition of previously contaminated lands for this unit.
The Keweenaw region was built by and subsisted entirely on
the wealth generated by the copper industry for more than 100
years. When the industry collapsed, the companies departed,
leaving the Copper Country economically depressed. Community
expectations of the establishment of a national park on the
Keweenaw Peninsula included the development of heritage tourism
to assist in economic recovery. In the fifteen years since the
inception of the park, even though the park was given authority
to provide financial assistance to owners of property
containing nationally significant resources to foster historic
preservation and visitor services development, there has rarely
been an opportunity for the park to provide assistance due to
the uncommonly high 4-to-1 match requirement. Depressed
communities are hard pressed to provide four-fifths of the cost
of preservation projects. The park's ability to foster a
preservation ethic of nationally significant resources through
partnerships rather than ownership and improve visitor services
goals would be significantly enhanced by a decrease in the
match requirement for financial and technical assistance to the
more common 1-to-1 ratio. The increased ability to effect
bricks-and-mortar preservation projects will, in turn, benefit
the economic health of these communities. S. 189 would change
the ratio from 4-to-1 to 1-to-1, providing a greater
opportunity for the park to work with partners and to support
the preservation and interpretation of the rapidly
deteriorating resources of the park.
S. 189 also would raise the appropriations authorization
ceiling for development from $25 million to $50 million. Since
2000, approximately $6 million has been spent on park-owned
facilities for administrative use, and it is anticipated that
another $7.5 million will be spent for both administrative and
visitor use over the next three years. The park's General
Management Plan (GMP) called for the early development of
partnerships and assistance programs, followed by park-owned
visitor facilities. The park is now poised to enter into this
facility development phase as prescribed. While the park does
not know the total amount that would be spent on implementing
this phase of the GMP, having an increased ceiling would allow
the park to proceed with the plan and not be hindered by
reaching a specific ceiling in the midst of planned activities.
Additionally, S. 189 would authorize Congress to
appropriate up to $250,000 annually to meet the needs of the
Keweenaw National Historical Park Advisory Commission and would
eliminate a required match of funds by the Commission. The
Commission was authorized in 1992 to interface with the park's
external partners and owners of historic properties and raise
funds for park purposes. It has also been charged in part, to
``carry out historical, educational, or cultural programs which
encourage or enhance appreciation of the historic resources in
the park, surrounding areas, and on the Keweenaw Peninsula.''
Although the Commission has put forth valiant efforts to meet
its charge, it will be unable to effectively fulfill its
mandates without recurring base funding. The present limit of
$100,000 on appropriations for the Commission would fund only
the most minimal staff, or allow the Commission to only
minimally reimburse the NPS for NPS-supplied-staff as required
in the enabling legislation. This increase in the authorization
ceiling and the elimination of matching requirements would
allow for the sustained and viable operation of the Commission.
With sustained operations, the Commission would be able to
raise funds for park purposes, including financial and
technical assistance to partner sites, and to fulfill its
charge to carry out historical, educational, or cultural
programs.
Finally, we recommend striking a provision in S. 189
concerning the ceiling on technical and financial assistance.
The park has provided financial and technical assistance to
owners of historic properties nearly entirely out of park
operating funds. It is a primary function of this partnership
park. It is expected that such assistance will continue through
the use of discretionary park funds rather than specific
appropriations for such purposes. Therefore, we recommend
striking the language from the bill that seeks to increase the
ceiling on financial and technical assistance from $3 million
to $25 million and inserting language that eliminates this
ceiling. This will result in the law not identifying a specific
amount for the park to provide for such purposes and in having
the park continue to fund this assistance through the park's
base budget rather than providing a separate authorization for
it. We have attached the proposed amendment to the testimony.
If enacted, the amendments in S. 189 would significantly
enhance park development and operations by eliminating overly
restrictive property acquisition criteria, by reducing
unrealistic matching fund requirements, by increasing
appropriation ceilings to levels that would support the
mandates and purposes of the park, and by fulfilling the
partnership provisions that are unique to this park unit.
Mr. Chairman, this concludes my testimony. I would be glad
to answer any questions that you or other members of the
subcommittee may have.
SUGGESTED AMENDMENT TO S. 189
On page 2, line 10 strike subparagraph (B) in its entirety
and insert a new subparagraph (B):
``(B) by striking `, and $3,000,000 for
financial and technical assistance to owners of
non-Federal property as provided in section
8'.''
Changes in Existing Law
In compliance with paragraph 12 of rule XXVI of the
Standing Rules of the Senate, changes in existing law made by
the bill S. 189 as ordered reported, are shown as follows
(existing law proposed to be omitted is enclosed in black
brackets, new matter is printed in italic, existing law in
which no change is proposed is shown in roman):
Public Law 102-543
AN ACT To establish the Keweenaw National Historical Park, and for
other purposes. (Approved Oct. 27, 1992; 106 Stat. 3569)
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
* * * * * * *
SEC. 4. ACQUISITION OF PROPERTY.
* * * * * * *
[(d) Hazardous Substances.--The Secretary shall not acquire
any lands pursuant to this Act if the Secretary determines that
such lands, or any portion thereof, have become contaminated
with hazardous substances (as defined in the Comprehensive
Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (42
U.S.C. 9601)).]
* * * * * * *
SEC. 8. FINANCIAL AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.
* * * * * * *
(b) Matching Funds.--Funds authorized to be appropriated to
the Secretary for the purposes of this section shall be
expended in the ratio of $1 of Federal funds for each [$4] $1
of funds contributed by non-Federal sources. For the purposes
of this subsection, the Secretary is authorized to accept from
non-Federal sources, and to utilize for purposes of this Act,
any money so contributed. Donations of land, or interests in
land, by the State of Michigan may be considered as a
contribution from non-Federal sources for the purposes of this
subsection.
* * * * * * *
SEC. 10. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
(a) Except as provided in subsection (b), there are
authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary to
carry out this Act, but not to exceed $ 5,000,000 for the
acquisition of lands and interests therein, [$25,000,000]
$50,000,000 for development, and [$3,000,000] $25,000,000 for
financial and technical assistance to owners of non-Federal
property as provided in section 8.
(b) There are authorized to be appropriated annually to the
Commission to carry out its duties under this Act, [$100,000
except that the Federal contribution to the Commission shall
not exceed 50 percent of the annual costs to the Commission in
carrying out those duties.] $250,000.
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