National Waterways Foundation Kicks Off Fundraising Effort

The National Waterways Foundation (NWF) has kicked off a fundraising effort to raise additional funds for the foundation’s next round of industry studies.

Established in 1978, NWF’s mission is to develop intellectual, factual arguments for an efficient, well-funded and secure inland waterways system. Over its nearly 50-year history, the foundation has commissioned several important studies that have provided critical data points to enhance the national dialogue about the importance of the inland waterways to the United States. These studies have highlighted the waterways system’s economic, environmental, safety and national security benefits, and its significance in America’s transportation network and supply chain. The National Waterways Foundation exists solely on contributions and donations.

One of the NWF’s most well-known and utilized industry studies is “A Modal Comparison of Domestic Freight Transportation Effects on the General Public: 2001–2019,” which compares selected impacts of using inland waterways barge transportation to highway and rail transportation. The study, by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s Center for Port and Waterways, was originally conducted and peer-reviewed in 2007, and then subsequently updated in 2011 and 2017 when new data sets were available.  The most recent 2022 update of the study addresses cargo capacity, congestion, emissions, energy efficiency, safety and infrastructure impacts.

“The National Waterways Foundation is a bit like a stealth weapon,” said NWF Chairman Matt Woodruff. “Many in the industry utilize the data, statistics and graphics and benefit from the studies NWF has produced, but they often don’t know where the information came from. NWF’s studies have really created and elevated the conversation within Congress, the Army Corps of Engineers, the news media and among waterways stakeholders about the critical importance of the inland waterways and its infrastructure, a subject not well understood or fully appreciated as a national asset.”

More recently, NWF released the second update of state waterways profiles that were completed by Cambridge Systematics Inc. (CSI).  The profiles offer valuable information about what the waterways bring to each inland state.  The states profiled are Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia and Wisconsin (see WJ, February 19).   

To ascertain the data, CSI utilized the National IMPLAN model to estimate the economic impacts of each state’s inland waterways system. The analysis evaluated current economic and commodity flow information, inland waterways and waterways-dependent industries, top commodities and the industries that most benefit from the inland waterways in each state. The profiles also include high-level, national benefits of and statistics for the inland waterways.

The foundation has also commissioned two other important studies expected to be released this year.  One will address employment issues in the inland waterways—wages, benefits, uniqueness and the opportunities for advancement—and is being performed by Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s Center for Port and Waterways. Eno Transportation Center is doing a study for NWF that examines the many beneficiaries of the inland waterways and its infrastructure.  This study will update work done in 2011 by the University of Tennessee on the multiple beneficiaries of the waterways.

“Our industry relies on fact-based, defensible data and stats to highlight the vital role of the inland waterways among surface transportation modes, and the National Waterways Foundation’s studies have made that information possible to us all over nearly five decades,” Woodruff said.

Visit www.nationalwaterwaysfoundation.org for more information or to make a donation.