The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1949-06-02
TVA Has Reshaped
Great Valley Area
BY BETSY LEvINsON

0y Dkt 81 LII AAFDo-N
The initials iva ring a bell
with most people and the odds are
they can even tell you that II
means Tennessee Valley Authority
But if you ask them to say just
what it is or what it does you'll
get variety Of answers.
To some people iva means pub
lie power. To some it means flood
control. Others picture Norris dam
or some other big dam. To still
others iva stands for government
ownership or Socialism"
Some Of these popular ideas Of
TVA are all wet. Some are true
but very incomplete. The Tennes-
see Valley Authority is a govern
ment corporation set up by an Act
of Congress in 1888. 1t has author
ity over the Tennessee River and
the streams and rivers that run
into the Tennessee. It's first job is
flood control; it's second is navi-
cation; and third is power produc-
tion. 1t does many other jobs be-
sides. iva has transformed the
lives of the people of the Tennes-
see Valley.
The first thing | was struck with
when / went to Tennessee was the
size of the iva undertaking-the
physical size. If no mountains were
moved in the building of the iva
system, there's practically nothing
else that wasn't.
Coming in from the north by air
one sees big lakes, twenty or thirty
miles long. It's hard to believe that
those lakes weren't there before
the TVA dams were built. There's
artificial looking about the
lakes and they fit into the country
side, the rolling hills between the
Cumberland and Smoky mountains.
If the existence and size of the
lakes themselves is difficult to
realize, the fact that these large
bodies of water are under control
and at the service of the people is
even more impressive. When | ask
I'd IVA Chairman Gordon Clapp
Why Douglas Lake on our left was
than Cherokee on our
right he casually replied, "Oh,
we're filling it right now" What
ooks as tho it isn't even man-made
an be made shallower or deeper
~ the flick Of a switch.
There is one of these lakes in
,ack of each of the 28 IVA dams.
When flood season is over in the
pring, the engineers let the rain
all store up in them to provide
water thruout the summer. By
August the great reservoirs are
everal feet shallower than in May.
Fishing has become the most popu-
ar sport in the Tennessee Valley
md cabins and boat docks dot the
hore lines.
The fishing, of course, is just
omething that was made possible
ecause the lakes were there. The
axes are there because the huge |
ans were built, some of concrete
nd some of rocks and packed |
arth. The dams were built to keep
he rivers from splashing over the
ountry side during flood season,
out farms and cities, TAX
1g lives and taking away the rich
opsoil, leaving bare rocks exposed
nd making farming impossible.
This chain of happenings is the
lost typical thing about IVA. You
ant talk about part of TWAS op-
rations without having several
ther parts come into the conver-
alton. You can't discuss IVA as
ny one thing but as many things
Il tied in with each other.
Because the dams are there,
ater stored up behind them is a
asst source of hydroelectric power.
ontrolled, it falls hundreds of
let down the inside of a dam to
It turbine and provide electric
y for homes and factories.
Because the river is controlled ,
is deep enough to provide chan
Il for boats, making ports of
ties that were once inland and
'inging products to the people of
e region at a low transportation
st.
Because of the new products, the '
leap electricity for homes and
rms, the lack of floods and the
dustries using the power created, I
e prosperity has come to the r
gion. The people know IVA not L
one thing but as many.