Posted on 09/09/2016 6:29:40 AM PDT by BlueMondaySkipper
Senators Burr and Tillis Introduce Legislation to Stop Tennessee Valley Authority’s Proposed Houseboat Ban
WASHINGTON — North Carolina Senators Richard Burr and Thom Tillis today introduced legislation to stop the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) proposed ban on houseboats, which would affect nearly 400 houseboat owners on Fontana Lake in North Carolina.
“TVA’s proposed removal of houseboat owners from their homes would be devastating for many hardworking North Carolina families in Swain and Graham Counties,” said Senator Burr (R-NC). “This amendment would stop this ill-conceived TVA proposal dead in its tracks and ensure that houseboat owners are able to stay in their homes. I’m urging the Senate to pass my amendment immediately to protect these vulnerable home owners.”
“The TVA’s proposed ban on houseboats is yet another example of federal government overreach that harms local communities in North Carolina,” said Senator Tillis (R-NC). “I look forward to working with Senator Burr to support this amendment and find a resolution for houseboat owners on Fontana Lake.”
The legislation was filed today as an amendment to the Water Resources Development Act of 2016.
The text of the amendment is available online here.
In August, Senator Burr wrote a letter to the Tennessee Valley Authority urging the agency to reconsider this proposal which would effectively ban houseboats in some parts of Western North Carolina. The full signed letter is available online here.
For sure. Funny how San Francisco and California are trying to fix homelessness while North Carolina is trying to add to it. The World is upside down.
I think there is a problem which few people grasp. The TVA folks can assure only to some marginal degree the water-level of their lakes. So if you had some guy create an area to park forty significant houseboats, and they had to drop the water big-time....they might be dragged into a lawsuit.
I understand the nature of houseboat owners....but there’s nothing written down to guarantee you got real lake stability. Go look out at southern Nevada and it’s lakes which used to have a lot of houseboat activity. Lake levels are down.
They probably want to confiscate the houseboats and put Syrians in them.
Having searched for a lake in the Midwest on which to build a home some years back I became all to familiar with the machinations of the TVA and COE.
They are all fascist autocrats!
People have lived in boats around here as long as I’ve been alive. I can remember going to the lake when I was a boy to fish or ski and being fascinated by the houseboats and the people who lived on them. I would like to know how many of them there are today across all the TVA lakes.
Few today know or care that thousands of Southerners were displaced when all the TVA lakes were built. I know it was all done in the name of progress, but countless people lost their homes, their land, their businesses. Entire towns were flooded forcing families, and everyone they knew and loved, to move. Not sure of this, but a long time ago I heard stories that some of those folks forced to move were living on houseboats near their old homes. Of course most all of those originally displaced are long dead, but some of their children remain alive.
Wholesale destruction of over $100M of personal property is something entirely different, and is a bridge too far for us. This draconian TVA plan should cause alarm to any freedom loving individual.
So stock the lakes with the endangered purple footed snail, or something. Then they could never drain the lakes.
No way for the boats to set sail to other territory huh (land locked lake)?
They are trying to destroy over 1800 of them, with an estimated value of over $100M
The wording is a bit misleading. What they are trying to remove are over 1800 floating houses. Think "Sleepless in Seattle" but typically much more modest. They aren't spread out all over the lakes but rather 98% of them are moored inside commercial marina harbors.
The idea is to evict the boats from the lake, as it reads. Could the boats be sailed elsewhere if the owners so desired it?
There are many of these types of lakes near my old Kentucky home.
Take Green River Lake for instance. It is a flood control lake that in the Spring rises sometimes 50 feet above winter pool. There are year round, liveaboard houseboats on that lake as well.
The marina, docks, and everything rise and fall with the lake. Fuel tanks reside on a nearby hill and flow to the floating fuel dock.
From the mid 1970’s until now, it has run without government complaint. And the owners of the houseboats moored there have dealt with the issues that arise from time to time.
But creeping governmentalism is working its way in. First gas dock issues, then waste treatment and pumpout issues. It is getting worse and worse. Government overreach strikes everywhere!
The word "houseboat" is a bit misleading. most of these have no propulsion and are more like conventional houses on floats (barge). They have existed in one form or another since before the TVA was even founded. On my lake (Norris Lake), there are over 900 of them and we are locking in by the dam. The TVA wants them all destroyed and they cannot, generally, be moved off the lake.
This isn't just North Carolina. It includes ALL of the TVA reservoirs. the bill is coming from Burr and Tillis because Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker (Republicans from Tennessee) don't have as much courage, nor do they care for us peons as much as the NC Senators do.
We need phone calls and emails to every Senator possible to get them to support the Burr amendment.
They could always move their houseboats to the ocean...since the oceans are rising as a result of globull warming.
Just kidding.
I’ve actually considered houseboat living. Would love to sell our current abode, eliminate lots of “stuff”, and move into a houseboat. Life would be much simpler.
"Land-locked" is putting it mildly: the road to Fontana Dam is one of the premier sport-bike destinations in the country, nicknamed "The Tail of the Dragon" for having something like 400+ turns in 12 miles or so.
Yep, been there, got the shirt...
Bummer. Lake formed by government fiat, so it is managed by same. A situation lending itself to being fickle.
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