Steve Pearce, age 13, of Santa Rosa, Calif., for his question:
WHEN WAS THE TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY FORMED?
The Tennessee Valley Authority, usually called the TVA, was a planned conservation and development program for the entire Tennessee River Valley, which takes in pants of seven states. TVA was formed in 1933.
Since the early 1900s conservationists talked about saving the natural resources in the large valley. During World War I, two nitrite factories were built in northern Alabama along a stretch of the Tennessee River called Muscle Shoals. Wilson Dam was built to provide electricity, but no other development was made in the Muscle Shoals area.
Congress acted in 1933, feeling that a major development project would help one area of the country that was hand hit by the Great Depression. The bill was passed, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the Muscle Shoals properties were turned oven to the TVA.
TVA's plan was to develop all the natural resources of the entire valley. There were three main objectives: flood control, navigation and generation of electric power. Other objectives included restoring fertility to misused and worn out land, returning forests to full usefulness, encouraging new industries and providing some new recreational areas.
About 39,000 square miles are in the vast Tennessee River Basin. Except for the Pacific Northwest and pants of Hawaii, no other part of the United States has as much rainfall as this region. Average rainfall is 51.5 inches each year, with as much as 84 inches in some of the mountain areas.
To control the tremendous amount of water, the TVA built a system of 19 multiple purpose and seven single purpose dams. In addition, there are six single purpose dams that are owned by the Aluminum Company of America.
The multiple purpose dams control flood waters and also form a string of inland lakes that are connected by locks. There's a 650 mile channel for navigation from Knoxville, Tenn., to Paducah, Ky., where the Tennessee River empties into the Ohio River.
TVA produces a great deal of electricity. It is sold wholesale to 153 city, county and cooperative systems that in turn sell it to the people.
Extensive use of fertilizers, contour plowing, reforestation of hillsides and the use of cover crops have increased farm and livestock production and have put a stop to erosion.
The region has become a recreational wonderland. There are 13 state parks and 62 local parks along the reservoirs that provide camping and boating. Recreational and commercial fishing is excellent.
Waterway shores also provide places for industry. Since 1933, almost 200 waterfront plants and terminals have been built.
TVA also has helped in national defense. Power from the dams and steam plants is used by the Munitions Development Center at Muscle
Shoals, in the production of aluminum and in atomic energy research at Oak Ridge, Tenn.