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The TVA's inspector general has broadened an inspection linked to U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler, a Western North Carolina Democrat who was re-elected to the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this month.

Shuler, a former star University of Tennessee quarterback who launched a Knoxville real estate firm under his name after playing in the National Football League, has maintained business ties in East Tennessee since his first election to Congress in November 2006.

In August, TVA Inspector General Richard Moore's office opened an inspection after the News Sentinel reported on a deal between the TVA and a firm in which Shuler has been an investor.

In June, the federal utility approved a transaction that provided 145 feet of water-access rights along the shoreline of Watts Bar Reservoir in Roane County to an entity called The Cove at Blackberry Ridge LLC.

In exchange, The Cove agreed to relinquish 150 feet of water-access rights in Rhea County and also provide about $15,000 for a bank stabilization project at a different location on Watts Bar Reservoir.

The transaction was approved under TVA's "maintain and gain" program, which allows landowners to gain water-access rights in one location by trading rights they own somewhere else on a reservoir.

Investors in The Cove at Blackberry Ridge include Shuler, who sits on the House transportation committee's Subcommittee on Water Resources and the Environment, one of two congressional panels that provide formal oversight of the TVA. Shortly after Moore opened his inspection, he said the inspector general's office was looking at whether TVA guidelines and policies were followed on the project or whether political pressure was involved.

On Monday, Moore said in an e-mail message that his office has broadened the scope of its review "due to issues that have surfaced regarding the design of the Maintain and Gain program and the way in which the program is administered. Consequently, we are examining all TVA records for every Maintain and Gain application which has been granted."

The Cove at Blackberry Ridge was the eighth maintain-and-gain application that had been approved since 1999, according to TVA figures provided earlier this year.

A TVA spokesman declined to comment on the broadening of the inspection. Moore said his evaluation requires a thorough examination of the operation of the program, the spectrum of applications it receives and "whether or not the program has been working within the policy of the TVA Board's Land Policy."

Moore said a report will be posted on the inspector general's Web site, but that "Given the expanded scope of our inspection, the additional materials that have to be located and reviewed, and the additional interviews conducted, we are not able to project a completion date for the report."

Shuler's congressional chief of staff declined to comment on the inspector general's announcement. According to a story published last week, Shuler told the Times-News of Hendersonville, N.C., that he has not ruled out a run for the U.S. Senate in 2010.

Business writer Josh Flory may be reached at 865-342-6994.

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.