America’s inland waterways system is the silent workhorse of our export market, moving some 60 percent of the nation’s grain to the world market. This system also transports 22 percent of our domestic petroleum and petroleum products, and 20 percent of the coal used in our nation’s electric power generation, along with many other vital commodities. This segment of the transportation network is often out of sight, out of mind, but without this critically important mode, our nation’s roadways would clog and crumble from the weight of those commodity movements, our air quality would be reduced from increased emissions, our consumption of and cost for energy would go up significantly, our economic competitiveness in the world market would erode, and our quality of life would be affected.
The United States needs a national policy that includes the waterways and its infrastructure, and helps put Americans back to work at the same time. Here are 10 ways why:
1. Jobs! Jobs! Jobs! The most important advantage our waterways can bring to America is family wage jobs. There are currently more than 20 navigation projects authorized by Congress that could begin putting U.S. workers back on the job. Let us invest in our nation’s lock and dam system today for a more prosperous tomorrow.
2. Exports for U.S. products: President Obama has called for the doubling of our nation’s exports over the next five years. A noble goal that will increase our country’s prosperity, yes, but without an efficient waterways infrastructure to move increased volumes of grain, for example, this will not be an achievable goal.
3. Traffic congestion relief: One 15-barge tow of dry bulk cargo keeps 1,050 trucks off our nation’s already overly congested highways, or another 216 railcars rolling through our communities.
4. Fresher air: The inland waterways transportation sector has a lower carbon footprint because it generates fewer carbon dioxide emissions than rail or truck for each ton of cargo compared to transporting that same cargo by these other modes.
5. Energy efficiency: Barges on our inland system can move one ton of cargo 576 miles on one gallon of fuel — more the 100 miles more than rail transport and 400 miles more than truck transport. This matters now more than ever as we seek ways to be less dependent on foreign oil.
6. Bolstering our economy: 624 million tons of cargo moves annually on the inland waterways, equaling around $70 billion that goes back into the U.S. economy. And more than $9 is returned to the nation in transportation cost savings for every $1 that is invested in a navigation project.
7. Multibeneficiaries: The inland waterways system benefits many Americans, including those who use it for recreation, municipal and industrial water supply, hydropower and flood control. Many communities along our inland waterways benefit from economic development opportunities, and private property owners enjoy higher property values because of the steady pools of water created by locks and dams on our inland waterways.
8. Safest mode: Our fundamental goal is to return our workers safely home to their families. Thus, inland waterways transportation boasts the lowest injury and fatality rates compared to rail or truck. Safety-related statistics for all modes of freight transportation show one injury in the inland marine sector for every 125.2 in the rail sector and 2,171.5 in the highway sector, and one fatality in the inland marine sector for every 22.7 in rail and 155 in highway.
9. Connecting the country: Our inland waterways system includes 12,000 miles of commercially navigable channels and around 240 lock sites. These inland marine highways transport commodities to and from 38 states throughout the nation’s heartland and the Pacific Northwest; they serve industrial and agricultural centers, and facilitate imports and exports at gateway ports along the Gulf Coast. Just like Lewis and Clark’s discovery expedition to find new trade routes for a young America, our waterways keep America moving today and will do so tomorrow as well.
10. Capacity to feed the world: Our capital development plan for the United States’ navigable waterways system is building for the future. Unlike the truck or rail industries, we can accommodate the Panama Canal expansion, containers on barge, and the increased exports that will help feed the world’s inhabitants, expected to grow to 9 billion by 2050.
Michael J. Toohey is president and chief executive of Waterways Council Inc. in Arlington, Va. Contact him at mtoohey@vesselalliance.com.