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The Tennessee Valley Authority is required by the TVA Act to maintain a nine-foot channel on the Tennessee River in order to allow commercial vessels to efficiently move their goods by water year round. Nine main and four auxiliary locks, located directly on the Tennessee River, allow for both commercial and recreational boat traffic to navigate down the river. As a result of the river’s availability for commercial water transportation, truck and rail prices are lowered. Approximately 54 million tons of goods are transported on the Tennessee River each year. Commercial navigation makes it possible for east Tennessee to be a major distribution center for fertilizer, asphalt, and salt. Zinc mines in Jefferson County, Tennessee, depend heavily on barge transportation to deliver zinc to customers downriver. The poultry industry would not be located in northern Alabama without commercial barge traffic options on the Tennessee (and Black Warrior) River systems; partly due to shipping options throughout the Midwest and South and also the availability of grains that can be transported cheaply by barge from the upper Midwest.