Conference Highlights Upper Mississippi

The Upper Mississippi Waterway Association will host its first ever Marine Highway 35 Workshop on June 25 in Moline, Ill.

The one-day conference at Western Illinois University’s riverfront campus is designed to bring together local leaders and stakeholders with river industry veterans, said Gary Williams, UMWA executive director.

“The Marine Highway 35 Workshop is a wonderful opportunity to see how everything is interconnected, from the land to the river and beyond,” UMWA President Zac Morris said. “I’m excited about getting people involved and engaged. Ultimately, the goal is to gain more recognition on the Upper Mississippi and allocate more congressional spending to improve the system and preserve the working river.”

A full day of activities is planned. Officials with the U.S. Maritime Administration (MarAd) and Corps of Engineers will help to explain federal missions and priorities along with the availability and success of grant programs. Another session will include results from a recent maritime economic and jobs impact study conducted by the University of Arkansas. Errin Howard of We Work the Waterways will speak about workforce pathways and industry awareness. Participants also will have the option of taking a two-hour river tour aboard a specially outfitted deck barge that will take participants through Lock 15 to Buffalo, Iowa, before they are bused back to their departure point.

“Participants can expect candid dialogue among shippers, carriers, ports and public agencies about what it will take to shift more cargo to the waterway,” Williams said. “People should attend if they want to help shape the future of Marine Highway 35 – whether that means opening new markets for barge and marine services, reducing pressure on congested highway corridors, improving environmental performance or unlocking new economic opportunities for communities tied to this vital stretch of the Upper Mississippi River.”

MarAd approached UMWA with the idea for the workshop, an Upper Mississippi regional gathering similar to the M-84 conference in the Pacific Northwest, Williams said.

The hope is that the workshop can serve as a free exchange of ideas with community leaders.

One important part of that will be for the leaders to think about available riverfront land in their communities, Williams said. While such leaders often plan for land bordering a river to be used as recreational spaces, in some cases it could be one of their most valuable opportunities for job creation, he said.

At the same time, local leaders are not always aware of the jobs available in the maritime industry or the importance of the cargoes moving on the rivers.

“We really do need to be much more open and ensure the wider public understands what happens on the river,” Williams said.

MarAd will provide information about the Port Infrastructure Development Program (PIDP) and how it is accessed. As finding matching funding for some grant programs can be a challenge for communities, part of the discussion will include options for where to source funding.

A panel moderated by Travis Black from MarAd will include examples of PIDP project success stories that Williams said will include hearing from ports and organizations that have successfully submitted grant applications about the kinds of projects that have been funded and what their experiences were.

“That one we expect to be very interactive with a robust question and answer session,” Williams said.

The “Commerce on the River” panel will help the audience understand the importance of maritime to the economy, including its role in agriculture exports. Williams noted that the Illinois Soybean Association’s outlook for 2050 calls for domestic crop production to exceed domestic consumption. That leads to a heavier reliance on exports, Williams said. However, the market could be shifting as China’s population declines and Africa’s population grows, he said.

“There’s no question that the Gulf is still a very, very important hub for it to come through,” Williams said of the crop. “The message there is that we simply must continue to invest and make sure the resources are there to keep the river low cost and utilized at the highest capacity that we can so that it’s competitive (internationally) for the future because that’s going to be very meaningful to a lot of economies. If we have a weak, underperforming, costly system for export, that’s not going to bode well for American agriculture and all related trickle down from that as well.”

Williams is hopeful that the conference will become an annual event. He would like to see it move from community to community along the Upper Mississippi for wider participation opportunities.

Those interested in attending the workshop may view the full agenda and register online at https://umwa.net/m35-workshop/. The cost is $35 and includes a catered lunch as well as all education sessions and the barge tour.