Too many campers on TVA campgrounds are turning their trailers into summertime homes or building illegal docks to use TVA lakes, officials say.
The Tennessee Valley Authority operates or leases more than 130 campgrounds for campers to use TVA’s lakefront properties for up to three weeks at a time. But President Tom Kilgore told utility directors last week that enforcing TVA rules for camping and lakefront docks “will be a little touchy” in some areas where campers have grown accustomed to using the campsites and other properties throughout the summer.
“We’re trying to be fair but also live up to our responsibilities for public lands,” Mr. Kilgore said. “We have some encroachments and violations, and we have to begin to clean these up.”
Mr. Kilgore showed photographs of trailers with built-in porches cemented in the ground and large propane tanks designed to last far longer than the 21 days campers are allowed to spend at TVA facilities.
James Adams, TVA’s senior manager of commercial and dispersed recreation, said so far the agency has identified about 600 violations of TVA rules and leases at campgrounds on its reservoirs in seven states.