AWO Reports 15,000 Jobs Created Along Waterways

The American Waterways Operators, Inc., Washington, D.C., has announced that 124 industrial plant facilities located along the navigable waterways of the United States during the fourth quarter of 1977, creating over 15,000 permanent job opportunities.

Of the total, 97 facilities reported capital investments of $6,027,550,000, an average investment of $62.1 million per plantsite.

Thirty-five of the facilities reported a total 15,400 new jobs, for an average 440 jobs per plantsite reporting.

The Great Southern Paper Company on the Chattahoochee River in Cedar Springs, Ga., is expanding its facilities, relying heavily on the river to receive fuel oil and coal used to fire its boilers. James Stewart of the company's transportation department stated that to transport the 375,000 barrels that will be used this year by any other means than water would "simply be prohibitive for several reasons, even if you could find enough railroad tank cars." AWO records show that 54 of the facilities were chemical and petroleum refining operations, 34 were metal-producing, 13 were paper and wood-producing f a c i l i t i e s , four were terminals, docks and wharves, and the remainder were general manufacturing and miscellaneous installations.

The Mississippi River accounted for 31 of the plantsites, the Houston Ship Channel 12, the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway 10, and the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway and Columbia River eight each.

This brings the total number of plantsites for 1977 to 418, with a total capital investment of $12,- 679,550,000. A total of 48,905 new jobs were created as a result of these investments in 1977. This represents a slight increase in total plantsites over 1976, but a more than double amount in total investment. Total job opportunities created also increased by 6 percent.

The total number of plantsites located or expanded along the waterways of the United States since 1952, when AWO began compiling data on water-oriented construction, has reached 10,621 facilities with a corresponding capital investment in excess of $190.6 billion.

Other stories from July 1978 issue

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