UA report: Arkansas waterways support more than 40,000 jobs

The five navigable waterways in or connected to Arkansas are responsible for more than 40,000 jobs in the state and generate an estimated $5.5 billion in revenue for the state economy, according to a new report pushed by the Arkansas Waterways Commission.

The “Regional Economic Impact Study of the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System (MKARNS),” was published for the commission in June 2024 by Heather Nachtmann with the Marine Transportation Research and Education Center (MarTREC) at the University of Arkansas.

Arkansas’ five navigable waterways are the portion of the Mississippi River that is the state’s eastern border, the Arkansas River, and the Ouachita, Red, and White Rivers, according to the commission. Of those, the Arkansas River provides a bulk of the economic impact to the state.

“These numbers demonstrate the MKARNS’ status as an ‘economic powerhouse’ that adds immense value to the state,” Commission Director Cassandra Caldwell noted in a statement to Talk Business & Politics. “The waterway supports thousands of jobs and contributes billions of dollars to Arkansas’ and the nation’s economies. When combined with our robust rail and interstate highway networks, the MKARNS enables Arkansas to distinguish itself as a leader in global intermodal logistics.”

According to the commission, Arkansas has around 1,800 miles of navigable waterways, the most of any other U.S. state.

Following are the key numbers from the report.
• Jobs created from navigable waterways
U.S.: 137,621
Arkansas: 40,518

• Revenue from navigable waterway commerce
U.S.: $22.7 billion
Arkansas: $5.5 billion

• Business tax revenue generated from navigable waterways
U.S.: $880.6 million
Arkansas: $185.3 million

The report also showed that the 12.375 million tons annually shipped on the river keeps 381,857 trucks off the roads.

“The feedback we’ve received on this information has been overwhelmingly positive, with many stakeholders expressing amazement at the scale and importance of the MKARNS to the state’s economic prosperity,” Caldwell said.

Tonnage shipped on the Arkansas River in 2023 totaled 12.208 million, up 10.9% compared with 11.011 million tons in 2022. Shipments of sand, gravel, rock and chemical fertilizers helped drive the 2023 gains. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is reporting that tonnage in the first eight months of 2024 totaled 8.09 million, down 4% compared with 8.424 million in the same period of 2023. August tonnage on the river was 1.001 million, up 2.7% compared with August 2023. The August data is the most recent available.

The Arkansas River system is 445 miles long and stretches from the confluence of the Mississippi River to the Port of Catoosa near Tulsa, Okla. The controlled waterway has 18 locks and dams, with 13 in Arkansas and five in Oklahoma. The river also has five commercial ports: Pine Bluff, Little Rock, Fort Smith, Muskogee, Okla., and the Tulsa Port of Catoosa in Oklahoma.

Link here for a PDF of the waterways impact report.