another TVA environmental disaster, this one deliberate (houses, live)

[joee]

Now the lawyers come out from under the carpet hoping for a piece of class action and ya know who's gonna come out on top of those.

[Bulldawgfan]

I am certainly not here to defend TVA, but repairing dams seems pretty important to me. If repairs were not made and a huge disaster was to take place, releasing river bottom sludge would seem like a minor event. I wonder why not one poster even considered this? The linked article never mentioned the specific repairs to be performed.
Do not get me wrong, I am no fan of either TVA or the Corps of Engineers, but this has 'damned if they do, damned if they don't' written all over it (no pun intended).

[JoAnn5]

I understand what you are saying, Bulldawgfan, but the thing that irks me is that we have no choice. We must pay whatever TVA says we must pay, or else spend thousands to convert to grid-free status. While their rates regularly increase, I really can't tell that their service has increased. As soon as the price of gas started rising, we were warned that TVA was increasing their rates yet again, supposedly due to the cost of gas. Yet when gas prices decreased, did TVA's rates decrease?? Ha! And now due to no fault of our own, we are faced with more rate increase to repair dams and clean up their mess. Why weren't they doing maintenance on these dams all along rather than waiting until a disaster happened? They certainly have had enough revenue to fund pay raises for their executives during the years.

What makes people angrier and more frustrated than anything else is the loss of control. TVA puts me in that state because I feel helpless to do anything about it. They don't appear to be answerable to anyone. I'm reminded of Marie Antoinette's cavalier attitude... "Let them eat cake!!"....... "Let them do without electricity if they don't like the way we do things!" grrrrrrrrr

Ok.... I'll step down off my soap box now... sorry to grumble over political stuff.

[Bulldawgfan]

Originally Posted by JoAnn5

I understand what you are saying, Bulldawgfan, but the thing that irks me is that we have no choice. We must pay whatever TVA says we must pay

I understand your frustration, JoAnn5... but we all face these utility 'monopolies'. Even the small electric co'ops are not going to satisfy every customer. But this thread was about an environmental disaster that just so happened to come from the folks that deliver your power. My point was not about calling TVA a bunch of sneaky, money grabbing, low life corporate minded wingnuts... but rather that some maintenance/repair is necessary to prevent a major environmental disaster. We are talking about man made devises that hold back millions of gallons of water which, if not maintained, could destroy many towns and kill many people. As an outdoorsman I do not take fish kills lightly. However, I have to atleast concede that some bean counter weighed the options and went with the public outcry of fish kills over some other potencial event.
That non-electric lifestyle mentioned in another thread (on here) is probably sounding pretty darn nice to a bunch of folks, huh??!! I have read that thread from back to front and find it awesome, but for me... well, it sounds a tad bit too extreme. My mother had some neighbors in Tn. that did not have any 'tricity ('cause it was 'spensive), and... well... those folks were/are down right scary. I am in no way saying forrest breath fits this mold (just the opposite), but my only other experience with folks who shunned electricity was scary at best.

[Rcm58]

Our rates were up 30% due to the lack of rain and TVA having to buy power from outside sources but we received a letter stating they would be reducing rates over the next few months in upper east TN.
I like how the director drank a glass of water on tv to prove it was safe to drink...lol following a picture of the dead fish floating on the river from arsenic poisoning.

[Forest Breath]

ROFL....well I never said I was not strange and mega weird! But in all seriousness, it is a move that should never be taken lightly. I would not suggest it for just anyone. Despite my problems of recent, we have no regrets on actually going non electric. People are surprised though at how normal we are and that we are not some radical psycho.

As for TVA needing to work on the dams. Yes, they do need work and I am sure the sediment leaching into the river was an accident however, it seems to me with all the money they obviously have to be able to manipulate goverment and control the lives of everyone through those $200 increases in utility bills, they could have taken some extra saftey precautions on the Ocoee, and anywhere else for that matter. They KNEW they were working with a fragile eco-system, they KNEW that it took many of us decades of constant work to bring any life back to that river. If they can remove every rock from the river, drain it and build faux rocks, have all that equipment in the river in preparation for the '96 Olympics and not re-kill the river, it looks to me that TVA could have worked on a dam without reversing decades of devotion and hard work by thousands of people who tested, waited, prayed, and prepared constantly for signs of the first surviving fish, crawdad, aquatic insects, etc.

And now, there is news of another problem, this time in Alabama. Will they ever be held accountable? I mean seriously! I don't have to pay them every month at this time in my life, but that does not mean I don't worry about those who do. I know how hard it is to live without electricty. I am hearing stories now in this county of people who have lost their jobs, there are no other jobs for them, their electric bill was $200 more this past month because of rate increases and they cannot pay it. It is January and these are families with small children, even elderly and what will happen? They get their electric cut off? How much further can you knock a man down before he cannot get up again? TVA has more money than any of us could ever imagine possible and if they cannot afford to clean up their own careless mistakes without forcing poor people who have already been knocked down with this recession, then that simply shows me what arses they are...not that I have not known that all along.

Rant over....back to our regularly scheduled posts.

[big daryle]

Originally Posted by Forest Breath

I use to work at the Whitewater Center and my office was upstairs overlooking the river. I did interpretive hikes on the Old Copper Road Trail. I spent a lot of time explaining the environmental impact of the strip mining that occured. I also explained how the river was coming back to life and did aquatic life programs with kids to show the healthy crawdads, minnows and other things a healthy river needs. I remember looking out my window one day as I was writing and environmental education program to discover a river otter playing on one of the faux rocks behind the Center. I was mezmerized. I reported it to TWRA and we watched the otter for weeks. Why? In order for a river otter to be there, there had to be a healthy river with a food supply to sustain it. The observation of the otter was good news....very good news for the not long ago dead Ocoee.

This TVA news is shocking. To risk this in such a fragile eco-system is horrible.

Sad news!

We have befouled our environment because of hideous overpopulation and overconsumption.

[Forest Breath]

Originally Posted by big daryle

We have befouled our environment because of hideous overpopulation and overconsumption.

I could not agree more.

[Southlander]

Originally Posted by Forest Breath

I don't have to pay them every month at this time in my life...

Are you sure?? You live in east Tennessee...ALL power in your area, and MANY others along the Tennessee River (that includes Alabama, western Kentucky, a small part of NE Mississippi and a small part of Western North Carolina) comes from TVA. It may be a local municipality or electrical co-op, but they're buying it from TVA.

[Forest Breath]

Originally Posted by Southlander

Are you sure?? You live in east Tennessee...ALL power in your area, and MANY others along the Tennessee River (that includes Alabama, western Kentucky, a small part of NE Mississippi and a small part of Western North Carolina) comes from TVA. It may be a local municipality or electrical co-op, but they're buying it from TVA.

Yeah I am pretty sure,

I live without any form of electricity at this time and no plumbing as well.