The Removal of Families from Tennessee Valley Authority Reservoir Areas

T HIS paper is not devoted to a discussion of the living standards of families in the Tennessee Valley, nor does it describe research techniques used by the Tennessee Valley Authority in making family studies. Rather it is an attempt to discuss one of the most important sociological problems encountered by the Tennessee Valley Authority: the removal of families from reservoir areas. The execution of the program of the Tennessee Valley Authority to improve navigation and control flood waters necessitates the purchase of land privately owned and occupied and the consequent removal of families to homes outside the purchase area. Rather than turning these families adrift and forcing them to seek their own new locations, a concerted effort is made to accomplish their removal and resettlement with as little injury to their economic status and social environment as possible. The agricultural extension divisions of the universities in the various Valley states, with a trained farm agent in each county, have assumed the chief responsibility for aiding displaced reservoir families. The extension divisions, in cooperation with the Tennessee Valley Authority, have established relocation services to assist the families who are forced to move to find new homes comparable to the ones they had prior to removal. Although this service is not empowered to render financial assistance, it locates farms for sale, appraises the value of such tracts, and advises with displaced families as to the type of farms best suited to their needs. Furthermore, its services are available to families whose relocation is made difficult because of health, mental or physical disability, incompetence, or other maladjustment. A social case worker visits each maladjusted family, analyzes its major social and economic problems, and, through cobperation with other agencies, works out plans for the family's removal and readjustment. The relocation service works in very close cooperation with the Farm Credit Administration, the Resettlement Administration, the Works Progress Administration, and other agencies. Thus the service acts as a coordinating and referring agency for the families in need of assistance. As a basis for rendering the maximum assistance to reservoir families in finding new homes, it is necessary to have information on the social and economic status of each family to be moved. Consequently, one of the first steps taken after the determination of the reservoir area for a particular dam is to make a survey of all the families living within the proposed taking line. Detailed questionnaires are administered to all families. These questionnaires call for information on the financial resources of the family, its size, the condition of the home, the size and type of farm, relocation desires, and other information that will aid in relocating the family to its best advantage. The primary data from the individual schedules are transferred to punch cards and become a permanent record of the families interviewed. The individual schedules are then made available to the relocation service for its use in dealing * Presented at the meeting of the Southern Sociological Society in Birmingham, Alabama, April 2,