Lawmakers, TVA head debate houseboat issue in hearing
U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows, R-Jackson, and Tennessee Valley Authority President and CEO William Johnson disagreed during a congressional committee meeting Friday over the need for TVA to ban floating homes from its lakes after 30 years.
Meadows told Johnson that the federally owned utility "should be focused on something else" and the TVA board's action in May to set up the 30-year grace period "was an arbitrary decision."
Johnson said TVA was spurred to action after some people using TVA reservoirs "got so sick from swimming in sewage that they had to go to the hospital." Waste from the houseboats can be a problem and cables used to keep the floating homes or houseboats moored pose a safety and navigation hazard for people in boats, he said.
Allowing people to keep the homes on the water forever also creates a legal problem, he said.
Read more: http://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/09/23/lawmakers-tva-head-debate-houseboat-issue-hearing/90948884/
