TVA revisited: implications for long range water resources management in the Tennessee River valley

It has been nearly half a century since Congress authorized the Tennessee Valley Authority to undertake a unique approach to developing and managing water resources. TVA's mission - one that many people clarly thought would fail - was to develop a basin wide system of dams and reservoir and to operate this system for three primary purposes: to ensure navigation depths on the Tennessee, to control floods along the Tennesse and its major tributaries, and to generate power. Today TVA's integrated water control system of 49 dams and reservoirs in the Valley is virtually complete, with only Columbia Dam on the Duck River still under construction and no others planned. The system has been notably successful in achieving all of the three objectives. Yet not all of our water resource problems have been solved. In fact, it is partly because of TVA's success that new challenges face us today. This new generation with changing lifestyles is bringing about new demands on our water resources, and in a different way, these new demands are as challenging as those TVA faced in the early days. In fact, we must reevaluate the existing system to determine how we might satisfy and balance as many of the new demands as possible consistent with primary purposes of the projects. TVA believes that industrial growth and environmental protection must be accomplished together to provide a new prosperity and a quality lifestyle for Valley residents. TVA is heavily involved in efforts to improved and maintain water quality in Valley streams. Fundamental to this effort is defining what effects certain water quality factors - such as temperature and dissolved oxygen changes and stratification - have on aquatic life. TVA laboratories have been set up for such basic research. TVA is working closely wiht the Federal agencies responsible for formulating national water policy and with the Valley States that ultimately have regulatory authority. TVA is bent on assuming its full share of responsability in helping the Vally States to comply with the Clean Lakes Act. In addition, TVA has a number of programs dedicated to protecting and enhancing the Valley's free flowing streams. TVA has programs to develop water recreation facilities and fisheries and to promote their use. Yet these programs to develop water recreation facilities and fisheries and to promote their use. Yet these uses must be compatible with the other major water control objectives. Conflicts have arisen and others will arise. Some have been settled, but others must be resolved in the future. TVA has played a dynamic role in the transformation of the Tennessee Valley into the thriving, dynamic region it is today. And TVA fully intends to do its part in leading the Valley into a prosperous new century