Economic Impact of Inland Waterways on Illinois
Inland Rivers, Ports & Terminals (IRPT) has partnered with the Waterways Council, Inc. (WCI) to promote the economic impact on the Nation’s Inland Waterways. The National Waterways Foundation (NWF) has released waterways profiles for the economic impact of the inland waterways for states including Illinois. Ranked 8th in the nation with 1,100 miles of navigable inland waterways:
Illinois is home to 17 public ports serving the Mississippi, Ohio and Illinois Rivers and the Great Lakes System.
Illinois' waterways support key industries, including:
Chemical manufacturing
Plastics and rubber products
Crop production
Nonmetallic mineral product manufacturing
Mining (except oil and gas)
You can view the full Illinois Economic Impact report here: https://waterwayscouncil.org/file/290/HO_WaterwaysProfile_IL.pdf
The National Waterways Foundation’s economic impact profiles uses 2018 available data. You can view all inland state profiles here: https://waterwayscouncil.org/waterways-system
NWF worked with Cambridge Systematics, Inc. (CSI) on the state waterways profiles using the National IMPLAN economic model to estimate the economic impacts of each state’s inland waterways system. The analysis included an evaluation of 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.
CSI’s data-driven methodology and process leveraged analysis from reports and research published by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Department of Agriculture, NWF, state agencies, Federal Highway Administration, and Bureau of Labor Statistics, among other sources.
The profiles reveal the number of inland waterways-supported jobs, associated state and local tax revenue, the volume of freight moving on the state’s inland waterways and how that equates to numbers of trucks, top inland commodities by weight and value, key industries in the state supported by the inland waterways, and how many miles of navigable inland waterways traverse the state.