TVA presents alternatives

TVA presents alternatives

Draft offers eight variations on managing river system

BY REBECCA FERRAR
ferrarr@knews.com

TVA reached a "milestone" Wednesday in its comprehensive study of the Tennessee Valley river system, releasing eight alternatives to managing that system.

Those alternatives focus on different aspects of the river system, including recreation, hydroelectric generation, flood control, navigation and water quality.

The alternatives are contained in a draft Environmental Impact Study. After more public input, TVA's study team will make one recommendation to the TVA Board of Directors.

TVA, which expects to conclude the two-year study this fall, has received more than 6,000 comments through letters, faxes, e-mail and at 21 public meetings during the course of developing the impact study.

Another 12 community meetings will be held during July and August to get public comments on the eight policy alternatives.

"We've reached a milestone in the draft EIS," said David Nye, TVA project manager of the study. "We have been working for more than a year defining the scope of the study, developing alternatives for operating the reservoir system and analyzing data. … We're very anxious to hear from the public and what they think about the alternatives. The board needs to hear what's important to the public."

Nye said achieving the best system will be a "balancing act" among competing demands of the river system. TVA studied 39 of its reservoirs.

Officials also looked at flood risk data from 1903 to 2001. TVA was created in 1933, but going back almost 100 years allowed the agency to consider other flood events and calculate their effect if the reservoir system were in place then.

The study was recommended by TVA's inspector general, the General Accounting Office and TVA's Regional Resource Stewardship Council, made up of political, community, civic and environmental leaders, established to advise the federal agency.

TVA initially had 60 alternatives, and with the help of the Public Review Group, narrowed that list to eight. The group is made up of businesses and state and federal agency officials.

One of the eight alternatives would maintain the status quo, which is maintaining summer pool, or higher level of the tributary lakes, until Aug. 1, restricting draw-downs in June and July, beginning draw-downs on Aug. 1 for the winter pool to increase storage space for flood control and continuing to establish minimum flows to maintain water quality from June 1 to Aug. 1.

Glen Bibbins, a member of the Public Review Group and of Land Owners and Users of Douglas, has complained frequently about lake levels on Douglas Lake. But he said TVA briefed the group "every step of the way" during the development of the EIS.

"I am extremely impressed with the effort that TVA has made to reach out to the public on this important issue," Bibbins said in a statement. "I feel very strongly that the management of the study, as well as the breadth and depth of the analyses of the various functions of the operation, are outstanding."

Stephen Smith, director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and a member of the stewardship council, said he doesn't expect there to be a lot of difference between the alternatives.

"There may not be a lot of wiggle room," he said. "If you try to push too hard in one area, you cause a negative reaction in another. If you hold back water for recreation, you would impact hydroelectric production."

Smith supported the conducting of the study.

"While TVA is not perfect, I think they have tried to find a reasonable compromise," he said.

Other alternatives include two to enhance reservoir recreation by keeping lake levels up longer, enhance summer hydro power production, equalize summer and winter flood risks, enhance commercial navigation, enhance reservoir recreation and tailwater (below the dam) recreation and enhance tailwater habitat.

Business writer Rebecca Ferrar may be reached at 865-342-6357.