Education: Waterways Matter!
America's inland waterways system is a vital part of our transportation infrastructure, conferring wide-ranging benefits on national and state economies. Although the system often functions out of public view, awareness of the many benefits it provides is absolutely necessary to understanding the role played by the U.S. government, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and state and local governments. In order to raise public awareness of the importance of the inland waterway system, the National Waterways Conference engages in a number of public outreach and education programs, all designed to bolster support for, and understanding of, America's national waterways.
In fact, more than half the states are tied to the navigable waterways system, in a vast waterside network of counties bordering rivers which originate and receive goods with a value in excess of $100 billion each year. Crops from states across the Midwest are shipped to river ports, and then down the Mississippi to Louisiana, where they are exported o the world. Coal from the Ohio River basin is shipped to power plants across the region and exported to foreign buyers. Chemicals and fertilizers are transferred from plants in the South to users across the heartland of America.
The inland waterway system is made up of navigable rivers and waterways, and the inland ports that facilitate trade on them. Some of America's largest ports are on inland waterways, including New Orleans, Mobile, Houston, and Portland, Oregon. The Gulf Intracoastal Waterways and the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway link inland ports and deepwater ports to the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic Ocean and the world.
But rivers and ports aren't enough. The waterway system has an impressive system of related infrastructure that includes locks and dams, navigation channels, harbor improvements, and flood prevention and control structures such as upstream dams, levees, and bank protection. Hydropower is generated at sites as well.
A crucial factor in maintaining this resource vital to the economic and environmental health of America is public awareness of its importance. If your company or association depends on the continued viability of the waterway system as a resource for transportation, public utilities benefits, recreation or ecological benefits please join the National Waterways Conference and contribute to our public awareness fund. We won't know how much we've lost until it's gone.