Flood Control Benefits and the Tennessee Valley Authority

Abstract

Probably the best known and most comprehensive river valley development program of the federal government is the Tennsesee Valley Authority. A government corporation chartered in 1933, the TVA has, among other less specific objectives aimed at fostering regional development, a principal goal of developing the Tennessee River and its tributaries for navigation, flood control, and electric power purposes. The core of the TVA operation is a series of thirty-two major dams-nine in the main stream, the remainder in tributaries-which were either constructed or acquired by it. Designed and operated to function as a single unit in the accomplishment of the triad of purposes, they provide a navigable channel along the 630 mile course of the main river from Knoxville, Tennessee, downstream to its juncture with the Ohio River near Paducah, Kentucky. The dams control flooding on the tributaries, the mainstream, and the lower Mississippi River, and harness the energy of the falling water, converting it into hydro-electric power. Representing a significant expansion of the sphere of government action far beyond the more limited area of flood control, the TVA has been widely acclaimed as an outstanding economic success, as a model of efficient governmental endeavor that might well be emulated elsewhere. The success of and justification for the enterprise depends in substantial part on the magnitude of flood control benefits that it has created, the value of which is not easily determined. Nevertheless some estimate is essential because justification of this phase of the Authority's program inevitably rests upon an assumption that flood control benefits compare favorably with the costs involved in their provision. The purpose of this paper is to examine the validity of the claims concerning the magnitude of such benefits in order to assess their value as guides to social economic endeavor.