THE TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY : An Experiment in Regionalism

Abstract

IT was on May 18, 1933, that the Act of Congress setting up the Tennessee Valley Authority became law. Through lack of effective planning to meet the successive floods, through unscientific farming and consequent loss of rich top soil, depression and destruction had spread throughout the valley of the River Tennessee and its tributaries-an area almost as large as England, with abundant natural resources including iron ore, coal, oil, timber, chemicals, fertilizer constituents, ceramic and aluminium clays, pigments and abrasives. Little was done until Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president in 1932, and he suggested to Congress legislation to create a Tennessee Valley Authority. In 1933 the system consisted only of the Wilson Dam and nitrate plant at Muscle Shoals which had been started to satisfy the need for nitrates in 1917 and had a capacity of 39,000 kw. Now in 1943 projects are under construction which will increase the capacity of the system to more than two million kw., provide flood control storage of 15 million acre-feet and a nine-foot navigational channel from the mouth of the Tennessee to its upper reaches at Knoxville, 650 miles away.