Thad Cochran: “Congress has for many years provided a specific appropriation to fund the Environmental Research Center in Muscle Shoal…”

“Congress has for many years provided a specific appropriation to fund the Environmental Research Center in Muscle Shoal, AL, until last year, when Congress directed TVA to begin looking for ways to finance the Center's operations with funds other than appropriations. The Chairman of TVA's Board, Craven Crowell, acknowledged this past March in testimony before our subcommittee that TVA had prepared a plan to continue operating the Environmental Research Center using outside funding sources. It has recently come to my attention that one of the ways TVA plans to continue the Center's operation is to compete for work with the private sector. Under the latest effort, TVA has produced and distributed materials intended to capitalize on their in-house expertise and resources to perform private sector engineering work. These services include: constructed wetland for wastewater treatment; removal of underground storage tanks; site assessment; environmental restoration; groundwater monitoring, and hazardous waste management. In Mississippi alone, there are over 78 private firms, many of them small businesses, who already provide these services.”