Editing Tennessee Valley Authority (section)

=== Eminent domain and resident removal ===
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 | footer = The historically significant town of [[Bean Station, Tennessee]] was among the largest of communities inundated by the TVA with nearly 90% of its population removed by eminent domain or federal lawsuits for the construction of [[Cherokee Dam]].<ref name="robinson">{{cite news |last1=Robinson |first1=Bonnie |title=Historic Bean Station, Oldest House in This Section, Fine Homes, and Other Landmarks Will Disappear in Cherokee Dam Lake |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/?clipping_id=38876634 |page=26 |access-date=November 7, 2020 |work=[[Knoxville News Sentinel]] |date=April 26, 1942 |via=Newspapers.com |archive-date=December 15, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211215175949/https://www.newspapers.com/image/?clipping_id=38876634 |url-status=live }}</ref>}}
The TVA has received criticism throughout its entire history for what some have perceived as excessive use of its authority of [[eminent domain in the United States|eminent domain]] and an unwillingness to compromise with landowners. All of the TVA's hydroelectric projects were made possible through the use of eminent domain,<ref name="slatee" /><ref>{{Cite web|title=TVA|url=https://tennesseehistory.org/tva/|access-date=July 5, 2021|website=[[Tennessee Historical Society]]|date=March 13, 2017|archive-date=July 9, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709185348/https://tennesseehistory.org/tva/|url-status=live}}</ref> and displaced more than 125,000 Tennessee Valley residents.<ref name="gaventa">{{cite journal |author1=[[John Gaventa]] |title=Book Review, 'TVA and the Dispossessed: The Resettlement of Population in the Norris Dam Area' |journal=Tennessee Law Review |date=1982 |pages=979–983 |series=Symposium, the Tennessee Valley Authority |publisher=Tennessee Law Review Association |location=[[Knoxville, Tennessee]] |quote=Over the past fifty years the agency has had many opportunities to learn from its mistakes. Since 1933, over 125,000 residents have been displaced from their homesteads by TVA dam construction projects.}}</ref> Residents who initially refused to sell their land were often forced to do so via [[court order]]s and lawsuits.<ref name="mtnpress">{{cite news |last1=McMahan |first1=Carroll |title=Douglas Dam construction created controversy, displaced families |url=https://www.themountainpress.com/news/douglas-dam-construction-created-controversy-displaced-families/article_ae65835b-2a78-571d-81d9-83810190ff82.html |access-date=August 5, 2022 |work=The Mountain Press |date=November 23, 2020 |archive-date=January 2, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230102161624/https://www.themountainpress.com/news/douglas-dam-construction-created-controversy-displaced-families/article_ae65835b-2a78-571d-81d9-83810190ff82.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="slatee">{{cite news |last=Onion |first=Rebecca |date=September 5, 2013 |title=The Tennessee Valley Authority vs. the Family That Just Wouldn't Leave |url=https://slate.com/human-interest/2013/09/tennessee-valley-authority-the-agency-s-fight-against-one-family-that-wouldn-t-sell-their-farm.html |work=Slate Magazine |access-date=March 4, 2019 |archive-date=March 6, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190306043116/https://slate.com/human-interest/2013/09/tennessee-valley-authority-the-agency-s-fight-against-one-family-that-wouldn-t-sell-their-farm.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Many of these projects also inundated historic [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] sites and early [[Colonial history of the United States|Colonial]]-era settlements.<ref>[[Jefferson Chapman]], ''Tellico Archaeology: 12,000 Years of Native American History'' (Tennessee Valley Authority, 1985).</ref><ref>Vicki Rozema, ''Footsteps of the Cherokees: A Guide to the Eastern Homelands of the Cherokee Nation'' (Winston-Salem: John F. Blair), 135.</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last1=Medina |first1=Eduardo |last2=Rubin |first2=April |date=2023-04-04 |title=Remains of Nearly 5,000 Native Americans Will Be Returned, U.S. Says |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/04/us/repatriation-native-american-remains-artifacts-tennessee.html |access-date=2023-04-05 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=September 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230924215616/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/04/us/repatriation-native-american-remains-artifacts-tennessee.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Historians have claimed that the TVA forced residents to sell their property at values less than the [[Just compensation|fair market value]], and indirectly destabilized the real estate market for farmland.<ref name="stephens"/> Some displaced residents committed suicide, unable to bear the events.<ref name="dispossessed"/> On some occasions, land that the TVA had acquired through eminent domain that was expected to be flooded by reservoirs was not flooded, and was instead given away to private developers.<ref>{{cite news |last=Madden |first=Tom |date=July 2, 1981 |title=Private land TVA claimed for lake to be given away to developers |url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1981/07/02/Private-land-TVA-claimed-for-lake-to-be-given-away-to-developers/4201362894400/ |work=[[UPI]] |location=Boca Raton, Florida |access-date=March 4, 2019 |archive-date=October 25, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211025165742/https://www.upi.com/Archives/1981/07/02/Private-land-TVA-claimed-for-lake-to-be-given-away-to-developers/4201362894400/ |url-status=live }}</ref>