The Tennessee Valley Authority was created by Act of Congress in May 1933. It is a public corporation, managed by a board of three directors who are appointed by the President for nine-year terms and confirmed by the Senate. The Authority has certain functions and duties defined by law within the drainage area of the Tennessee River, a region of 42,000 sq. mi., about equal to the state of Ohio. It occupies about three-quarters of the state of Tennessee, and smaller parts of Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi.
The Tennessee Valley Authority Act was the culmination of three general lines of influence. During the World War a large power development was begun on the Tennessee River near the foot of a rapid stretch known as Muscle Shoals. After various Congressional vicissitudes the Wilson Dam and power plant were finished in 1927, and then lay idle while Congress disputed over the issue of public and private ownership. Twice Congress voted for public operation of the power plant, only to have the bill vetoed by the President. Finally the Tennessee Valley Authority Act was passed by Congress and signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Act was amended in 1935 to clarify certain provisions.
It provides for several types of activities, the chief of which are: the unified control of the Tennessee River system for navigation, flood control, and power development; the disposal of the power which is generated; the manufacture of fertilizer, and experimental demonstration of its use; and a program of research, experiments and demonstration in regional development, with reports to national and local governments including suggestions and recommendations for legislative policies.
Dams for Control of Tennessee River.
The major part of that program consists of the unified control of the Tennessee River. This is being achieved by a system of nine large concrete dams on the main Tennessee River and three dams on tributary streams. Taken together these constitute the largest unified dam construction program ever undertaken, with the possible exception of that now being developed on the Columbia River. The lowermost is the Gilbertsville Dam in Kentucky, located 23 miles from the mouth of the Tennessee River, construction of which was begun in 1938. This dam and reservoir will cost about $112,000,000, and, with a lift of about 68 feet, will create a lake 184 miles long, covering 160,000 acres at normal stage. This will be one of the longest and largest artificial pools ever created. The Pickwick Landing Dam in Tennessee at the head of the Gilbertsville pool was completed in 1938. As in the case of Gilbertsville, its lock is 110 feet wide and 600 feet long. The lift is 61 feet, the highest large-dimension single lift hitherto constructed for navigation. The Pickwick Dam backs water up to a small structure known as Dam No. 1, just below Wilson Dam at Muscle Shoals. At this dam and those above, the lock dimensions are 60 feet wide by 360 feet long.
Wilson Dam at Muscle Shoals, Alabama, built before the creation of the TVA, has a double-lift lock with a total lift of 90 feet, and backs the water up over Muscle Shoals to Wheeler Dam, 16 miles upstream.
The Wheeler Dam in Alabama, with a lift of 53 feet, was completed in 1936. It will create a pool about 74 miles long, at the upper end of which is the Guntersville Dam, also in Alabama, begun in 1935, to be completed in 1939, creating a pool about 82 miles long, reaching to the Hales Bar Dam, a few miles below the City of Chattanooga, Tenn. The Hales Bar Dam was built about 1905 by private interests for power development, but contains a navigation lock with a lift of 40 feet. Next above the Hales Bar Dam is the Chickamauga Dam, about 6 miles above Chattanooga. This was begun in 1936, to be completed in 1940. It will have a lift of 53 feet and will create a pool about 59 miles long, reaching to the Watts Bar Dam in Tennessee. This will have a lift of 71 feet and will back water 72 miles to the Coulter Shoals Dam in Tennessee, which, with a lift of 71 feet, will create a pool 54 miles long extending to the point where the Tennessee River is formed by the junction of the French Broad and Holston Rivers just above Knoxville, Tenn.
In addition to these 9 main-river dams, the unified control program at present provides for 3 storage dams on tributary streams. These are Norris Dam, 25 miles north of Knoxville, Tenn., on the Clinch River, a structure 265 feet high, completed in 1936, with a total storage capacity of about 2,500,000 acre feet; the Hiwassee Dam on the Hiwassee River in North Carolina, with a total storage capacity of about 440,000 acre feet; and the Fontana Dam, on the Little Tennessee River in North Carolina. This will have a total storage capacity of about 1,500,000 acre feet. The river control system as a whole will cost about $500,000,000.
The navigation system will provide a minimum channel depth of 12 feet, suitable for vessels of 9-foot draft. Below Wilson Dam the width of locks is 110 feet. At Wilson Dam and above the width is 60 feet, but sites are provided for larger locks when they shall be needed.
Flood Control.
Flood control is provided chiefly by the storage dams on tributary streams and by the Gilbertsville Reservoir, which has a total storage capacity of 6,150,000 acre feet of which 4,600,000 acre feet is available for control of floods on the lower Ohio and the Mississippi. However, there is a substantial amount of flood control storage above each of the main-river dams except the Wilson Dam, which, being built in the Muscle Shoals gorge, has a high head but small storage capacity. (See also FLOOD CONTROL.)
Power.
Each of the 12 dams is capable of developing a considerable amount of electric power. The total capacity installed in 1938 was 348,000 kw., with a prime capacity of 155,000 kw., at 60 per cent load factor, and a total capacity of 1,720,000,000 kw.-h. per year of prime and high-grade secondary power. By 1942 the present construction program calls for an installation of 697,000 kw., a prime capacity of 342,000 kw., at 60 per cent load factor, and an annual capacity of 3,512,460,000 kw.-h. of prime and high-grade secondary power. The power plants at the dams are connected by a transmission system operated at 154,000 volts, which unites all the installations into a single power-generating system, under a single-power dispatcher.
The electrical program of the TVA involves the sale of this power, preference being given by the TVA Act to municipalities and power districts. In the fiscal year 1938 about 29 per cent of sales were to municipalities and power districts, 41 per cent to industrial and commercial customers, 9 per cent to private utility companies, and 21 per cent to other departments of the TVA.
The sale of power in competition with private industry has been the most controversial phase of the TVA program, resulting in much litigation and political activity. By the end of 1938 the TVA had contracts with, and served power to 21 municipalities, 19 power districts or cooperatives, 6 industrial and commercial customers, and 2 private utility companies.
Fertilizers.
The fertilizer program of the TVA provides for the manufacture of fertilizer and fertilizer ingredients, and for experimentation and demonstration in their use. The fertilizer program has been confined to the manufacture and distribution of phosphates, though the war-time plant at Muscle Shoals was constructed to produce nitrates. This phosphate fertilizer has been distributed to about 23,000 farms, the farmer agreeing to use it only on soil-protecting crops. Phosphates also are sold to the Department of Agriculture for use in the national agricultural control program.
Research Plans.
The research and demonstration features of the TVA have dealt with land planning; a forest survey; a survey of recreation resources of the region; studies of transportation; health research and demonstration; studies of natural resources, and appraisals of social and industrial changes.
The unified river control system of the Tennessee River represents an advance in engineering practice. For the first time a great river system is developed under a single comprehensive plan and operated under a single management in order to secure the maximum benefit for all useful purposes. Navigation, flood control, power development, industrial water supply, fisheries, recreation, and other minor purposes are considered. The program requires operation to be adjusted to all these needs so that the greatest total values will be received. In this case, social and economic planning for a region does not rest on any abstract theory of government, but upon physical conditions which, under overall unified control, can be made to yield greater returns than could be secured by separate undertakings.
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