OriginalBama, I not calling you a liar by any means, however, I think you are repeating tales about events at Yellow Creek that are in fact classified as "Urban Legends". I worked for TVA for 30 years and for 15 of those years I was in the Heavy Equipment Division (HED) that owned and controlled all of the equipment at the construction sites including Yellow Creek. HED charged each site a rental rate for their equipment and got paid a monthly fee. So, if the site buried a dozer, the site would have had to pay for the dozer when it came up missing. Additionally, my boss would have someone’s head on a platter if a dozer came up missing. There would have been criminal charges filed for theft.
I was part of a task force team that investigated these same type allegations occurring at Hartsville Nuclear Plant site. We spent days digging through waste pits looking for items that had supposedly been buried. All we found was worn out rainsuits, rubber boots and broken tools that had been declared unsafe or beyond repair. In not one instance did we find anything that was usable or was of value. The team spent countless manhours and thousands of dollars to fully investigate and put the matter to rest.
Now as to you walking out the gate with a screwdriver in your pocket, yes you would be charged with theft of government property if you stole a tool. However, everyone that worked at a TVA construction site was told in advance about TVA’s theft policy. If you worked at a construction site, you knew you were supposed to leave your TVA tools in the crewshack or gangbox. What is wrong with preventing theft?
For the record, TVA does not “Own” the Tennessee River. We the people of the United States of America “Owns” the Tennessee River. TVA is merely the custodian of the river system along with the Corp of Engineers who controls the lock system.