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Dam tax?

According to Dennis Sherer's story, "Cheap ride," "more than 50 million tons of cargo pass through the locks at Wilson and Wheeler dams each year."

What would it be like if the City of Florence began assessing a $1 per ton fee on all barge traffic through the area?

Why, it could even be 25¢ and it'd still be an excellent source of income.

Heck, even 10¢ would bring in $5,000,000 annually!

It's not as if assessments aren't made every day for use of public infrastructures by private enterprise.

Even big trucks (more accurately, their comporate owners) pay taxes to the states based on their use of the roadways.

Why not for waterways?
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To assert that because "Florence doesn't own the river, dam or locks" as an excuse not to assess tax for the benefits derived from it's use raises some interesting issues & questions.

Neither the city nor county own U.S. Hwy 72 but that hasn't stopped the Florence Police Department from patrolling the area and citing drivers accused of violating regulations/laws.

Who, then, owns the river? The state? Alabama has been involved in an on-going "water war" with Georgia, Florida and Tennessee over who uses our water from our rivers, such as the 1.) Tennessee, 2.) Weiss Lake (feeds the Coosa River in GA), 3.) R.L Harris Reservoir in Randolph county,4.) Lake Harding (feeds the Chattahoochee River in GA), 5. Chattahoochee River (which is technically and legally in AL).

It seems that Atlanta has been experiencing a water supply problem because of their growth, so they took to sipping from Alabama's sweet supply.

Thus, a protracted lawsuit ensued.

So, back to the original question.

Who controls the water running through Florence?

Now, that begs the original question I posed: How does the Shoals benefit from the Tennessee River?

To assert that 'we benefit because bazillions of dollars of stuff rides through here' is simply inane.



Florence can and does regulate use of the river for the portion of it that flows through their legal boundaries.

Thus, they can control -to some extent- the river and those on it.

If control is an issue, who then is responsible for its control?

(It seems the Coast Guard is involved in the Arabian Gulf. What is up with THAT!?! http://www.uscg.mil/Pacarea/News/newsreleases/2003/may/may14.htm)

According to the U.S. Coast Guard website, the USCG's "mission is to protect the public, the environment, and the United States economic and security interests in any maritime region in which those interests may be at risk, including international waters and America's coasts, ports, and inland waterways."

Gee whiz Wally... where are the Coast Guards now? Ain't we got no tare-ists, or terroristas in the Shoals?

"USCG has a broad and important role in homeland security, law enforcement, search and rescue, marine environmental pollution response, and the maintenance of river, intracoastal and offshore aids to navigation."

Them USCG folk say thar s'pozt'a be environmental watchdawgs.

Reckon why they ain't been a-patrollin' thuh Tenuhsee Rivur?

Shucks!
TVA owns the rights to the river and surrounding areas. Even if you have a pier on the river, by Federal law..... you must get a permit(which is free) to repair it. Its a law not many are aware of and most dont do it because they dont know, but it has been enforced in the past. TVA owns the dam system. Cities cannot override the Federal government. Nice question though... one not many have thought of I'm sure. But it aint gonna happen lol.... Personally i think TVA has too much authority and has overstepped the boundries which TVA was supposed to be. Ive been in the old NFDC building offices and seen people asleep at the desks... its just another government waste.....and speaking of waste, I worked as a laborer at Yellow Creek back in the early 80s,.... I saw tools, even a bulldozer buried because it was close to budget time and they needed to make the books balance(to cover up some of the waste). But walk out the gate with a screwdriver, and you got fired or prosecuted or both. What I'm saying is, the government, whether it be city, state or federal..... does what it wants to do... whenever it wants to do it...
For more than seven decades, TVA has been improving the quality of life in the Tennessee Valley through its threefold mission of providing affordable and reliable power, promoting sustainable economic development, and acting as a steward of the Valley's natural resources.....OriginalBama just wondering where they have overstepped their boundaries? They take care of the river, if it were not for TVA sustaining the natural beauty of the Tennessee River it would be as nasty and polluted as the Wabash river between Indiana and Illinois, you cant even eat the fish out of the Wabash without being poisoned! And as for the fertilizer plant, have you been through there lately? It is practically a ghost town, the only work that goes on there now is basically support of the DOD work tva is doing for the army. Demil of the chemical warfare agents manufacturing facilities around the country and for that matter around the world!
OriginalBama, I not calling you a liar by any means, however, I think you are repeating tales about events at Yellow Creek that are in fact classified as "Urban Legends". I worked for TVA for 30 years and for 15 of those years I was in the Heavy Equipment Division (HED) that owned and controlled all of the equipment at the construction sites including Yellow Creek. HED charged each site a rental rate for their equipment and got paid a monthly fee. So, if the site buried a dozer, the site would have had to pay for the dozer when it came up missing. Additionally, my boss would have someone’s head on a platter if a dozer came up missing. There would have been criminal charges filed for theft.

I was part of a task force team that investigated these same type allegations occurring at Hartsville Nuclear Plant site. We spent days digging through waste pits looking for items that had supposedly been buried. All we found was worn out rainsuits, rubber boots and broken tools that had been declared unsafe or beyond repair. In not one instance did we find anything that was usable or was of value. The team spent countless manhours and thousands of dollars to fully investigate and put the matter to rest.

Now as to you walking out the gate with a screwdriver in your pocket, yes you would be charged with theft of government property if you stole a tool. However, everyone that worked at a TVA construction site was told in advance about TVA’s theft policy. If you worked at a construction site, you knew you were supposed to leave your TVA tools in the crewshack or gangbox. What is wrong with preventing theft?

For the record, TVA does not “Own” the Tennessee River. We the people of the United States of America “Owns” the Tennessee River. TVA is merely the custodian of the river system along with the Corp of Engineers who controls the lock system.
quote:
Originally posted by OriginalBama:
TVA owns the rights to the river and surrounding areas. Even if you have a pier on the river, by Federal law..... you must get a permit(which is free) to repair it. Its a law not many are aware of and most dont do it because they dont know, but it has been enforced in the past. TVA owns the dam system. Cities cannot override the Federal government. Nice question though... one not many have thought of I'm sure. But it aint gonna happen lol.... Personally i think TVA has too much authority and has overstepped the boundries which TVA was supposed to be. Ive been in the old NFDC building offices and seen people asleep at the desks... its just another government waste.....and speaking of waste, I worked as a laborer at Yellow Creek back in the early 80s,.... I saw tools, even a bulldozer buried because it was close to budget time and they needed to make the books balance(to cover up some of the waste). But walk out the gate with a screwdriver, and you got fired or prosecuted or both. What I'm saying is, the government, whether it be city, state or federal..... does what it wants to do... whenever it wants to do it...


Actually, Dams (meaning where someone locks in and locks out, tows, tugs, etc) are actually owned and operated by the Corps of Engineers. How did you miss that one?

The POWER OPERATIONS at the Dams (power generating units, gates, etc) are owned and operated by TVA. And we all need to Thank God for TVA, otherwise, look in your history books as to where even OUR area stood "before" TVA... the only living was being a dirt farmer, or if you were lucky, own a grocery store or Still, ...

Think about what you said here... Yes, TVA may very well have buried TOOLS, but Dozers? I think not... wanna know why they buried tools? Because of Congress/Senate... at that particular time, it was ILLEGAL for any TVA site to make money off tools and things, and could NOT, by law, sell them, or give them away.

Most of everything at Yellow Creek worth saving/and doling out to other sites was shipped to Hartsville Tn. and sites have gone for years to Hartsville to get things they needed..... Thankfully .... now Hartsville is now almost empty, except for storage of huge components (rotors, cylinders, shells, valves etc.)...

This is not rumor, this is what I KNOW.

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