Page 24: of Marine News Magazine (May 2022)

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Feature

Inland Waterways

Arkansas Waterways Commission match the demands of a 21st century economy, impacting energy, the environment, logistics and supply chain. With- out these investments, the US economy couldn’t function at the scale demanded by global trade.

The following presents some of this work, highlighting the important interplay between large scale economic de- velopment and the Inland Waterways.

ARKANSAS RIVER WATERWAYS

Cassandra Caldwell is Director of the Arkansas Water- ways Commission (AWC). She highlighted the MKARNS project as one of the biggest opportunities in 2022. Arkan- sas has 1,800 miles of navigable waterways, third highest in the nation, across ? ve rivers: the Mississippi, the Arkan- sas, the Ouachita, and the Red and the White Rivers.

Caldwell said AR’s river system carries 17.8 million tons of commodities annually, supporting over 55,000 jobs, $2.5 billion in personal income and $277.8 million in state and local tax revenue. She said that AR’s waterways “are

Cassandra Caldwell, enticing new industries and transforming the economies

IMPM, Director, Arkansas of some of Arkansas’ most disadvantaged communities.”

This new economic development goes beyond just

Waterways Commission keeping up with current demands. New investments are

U.S. Steel Port Scrap Unloading Dock at Osceola

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