| OCR Text |
Show Chapter 3 Existing Facilities and Programs The principal program of development on the main stem of the Tennessee has been that of the Tennessee Valley Authority, although other Federal agencies, the States, communities, and private groups have contributed. The Corps of Engineers in particular had an active program in the valley for a number of years previous to the 1930's, but its total expenditures were relatively small. It is still responsible for operating the navigation pro- gram. The Department of Agriculture has several pro- grams in the basin which affect land management. Foremost is that of the Forest Service, which has purchased 1,895,000 acres under the Weeks Law of 1911 * in order to establish favorable conditions of water flow. Many of these lands were actively eroding at the time of their purchase and have been managed primarily for watershed protection. The primary objectives of Congress in adopting the Tennessee Valley Authority Act of 1933 were to improve navigability and provide for flood con- trol on the river. These improvements were to be effected by constructing such dams and reservoirs in the river and its tributaries as would provide and maintain a 9-foot channel from Knoxville to the mouth of the Tennessee, and control floods in the Tennessee and Mississippi River drainage basins. The TVA was authorized to erect the stream struc- tures which "will best serve to promote navigation" and effect "control of destructive flood waters" on the Tennessee and its tributaries. The TVA Board was directed, in the operation of any dam or reser- voir in its possession and control, to regulate stream flow primarily for these purposes. The act also provides for other purposes. Indeed, in both conception and execution the system of river works proposed was intended to serve multiple pur- poses. Congressional directives further included serving the interest of national defense, agricultural and industrial development, and "generation of electric energy to avoid waste of water power." 2 The Tennessee Basin program has developed in the framework of these broad objectives. Navigation Improvement and Use Before 1933 For more than a century the people who have lived along the Tennessee have sought to make it serve the needs of commerce. Pioneer settlers moved down the Holston and Tennessee on flat- boats to the Ohio and thence up the Ohio and Cumberland to what is now Nashville. The voyage of the "Adventure" over this route in the winter of 1779-80 8 was perhaps the earliest use of the river by white men. The Tennessee River has been under active im- provement for navigation since about 1828. Most of the early planning and financing was provided by the United States, through the Corps of Engi- neers, in cooperation with Alabama and Tennessee. Open channel work, such as dredging, snag re- moval, channel constriction at critical points, and canalization of limited reaches were prosecuted on *Act of March 1, 1911, 36 Stat. 961, as amended, 16 U. S. G. 480, 500, 513-519, 521, 522, 563. "Act of May 18, 1933, § 1, 48 Stat. 58, 16 U. S. G. 831 and § 9a as added by Act of August 31, 1935, § 5, 49 Stat. 1076, 16 U. S. G. 831h-l. "Donelson, John, Journal of a Voyage, December 22, 1779, to April 24, 1780. 911610-51- 715 |
