Law is clear on how TVA may use land Times editorial (Dec. 2) is well done, and I support its conclusions. However, it is well to remember in the famous Hill vs. TVA cases and in other cases, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Congress, in the TVA Act, allowed the Tennessee Valley Authority to take "marginal lands." Congress also told TVA what it could do with those "marginal lands." None of those mandates include selling or auctioning public lands for private, commercial and recreational development. TVA has made other interpretations and escaped legal scrutiny largely because no one person or group has ever challenged the agency on those interpretations. Former landowners and heirs have challenged TVAs auctioning of public lands formerly held by owners in the 1930s, but courts have held consistently that TVA has no obligation to return unused land to former landowners. It is well to remember that land held by TVA is not, technically, TVA land. It is land owned by the United States and held by TVA in trust. The TVA Act specifically states how such lands held by TVA in trust for the United States may be used or sold. That is the reason TVAs public trust obligation is so high, as the Times noted.
JOE W. McCALEB
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