Page 13 - July August 2017 Vol 35 No 2

WEST TENNESSEE By David Blackwood
Insight into the West Tennessee
River Basin Authority

Water is amazing. It covers 75 percent Amphibious Trackhoe Stream
of the surface of earth. Eighty percent of
the human body is water. Water falls from Airboat Flooding
the sky as rain, giving life to crops and Carroll County Flooding State Parks. Lands that were dominated
forests. Water bubbles up from springs amounts of erosion to fill the rivers and with sediment and flooding have persisted
and sustains life in rivers. As far as neces- valleys with sediment. Valuable farmland, as wetlands and wildlife management
sities go, water is in the same category as wetland forests, and early infrastructure areas. Land between the two extremes was
oxygen. It is essential. Scientists predict were all heavily damaged. Conservation reclaimed and is typically used for agricul-
that reliable freshwater sources will be efforts to stop erosion and soil loss would ture. Each area has a different relationship
the most sought after commodity in the not have been possible without the prolif- with streams and rivers and the WTRBA
next hundred years; even more than oil eration of heavy equipment and extensive has to consider them all.
and precious metals. Water is our most public programs through agencies such as
precious public resource and, like any the Army Corps of Engineers and the Soil Maintenance of rivers and streams in
large system, requires wise management Conservation Service. Lands that were no west Tennessee relies on removing block-
through public works. longer suitable for farming were allowed ages of trees and debris to keep water and
to reforest. Many of those lands became sediments moving. One major blockage
The West Tennessee River Basin
Authority is located on the outskirts of
Humboldt in west Tennessee. It is a State
of Tennessee agency that has been in the
business of maintaining rivers and streams
of the west Tennessee area since 1972.
Originally formed as the Obion-Forked
Deer River Basin Authority, the agency
was expanded to cover 20 counties and
placed under the administration of the
Tennessee Department of Environment
and Conservation in 1996. The mission
of the WTRBA is “to maintain the flow
and function of rivers and streams and to
restore, where practicable, natural stream
and floodplain dynamics….” The work
of the WTRBA falls into three general
categories: maintenance of existing infra-
structure, technical assistance, and con-
struction for restoration, infrastructure
protection, and flood control projects. All
the work is rooted in the history of the
rivers of west Tennessee and the geology
that separates it from the rest of the state.

West Tennessee during settlement in
the 1800s was a land of sandy forested
hills and swampy wetland forests. Land
was logged for lumber then drained for
agriculture. Most of the winding rivers
of west Tennessee were converted to a
system of drainage canals by the early
1900s. West Tennessee is dominated by
soils made of sands, silts, and clays. There
is no bedrock or gravel to control ero-
sion or the depth of the rivers. Poor land
management practices allowed massive

12 TPW July/August 2017