Barging on the Columbia-Snake River system is the vital link which connects the Pacific Northwest economy to international trade and commerce. Barging delivers to upriver communities vital refined petroleum products, fertilizer and important goods to serve agriculture, industry and people's everyday needs. It provides vital transportation to grain shippers to deliver 4.5 million tons of grain to lower Columbia river ports for export. Provides vital savings to shippers by charging less than half of rail cost and six times less than truck transportation. Barging offers vital fuel efficiency benefits by using half the fuel used by rail, and one tenth the fuel used by truck.
Barges have an excellent environmental safety record.
According to the Coast Guard, water transportation results in fewer accidental spills or collisions than any other form of transportation. Companies operate under tough operational safeguards and strict, federally-mandated inspection standards. Barges provide vital fish transportation by carrying 20 million juvenile salmon and steelhead downriver annually to provide safe passage around hydropower dams and turbines. . . . On the Doorstep of World Trade Portland, Oregon is the largest export port on the West Coast, and the barge industry operating on the Columbia-Snake River system is the vital link which connects the Pacific Northwest economy to international trade and commerce. 35 percent of U.S. wheat exports, and 20 percent of U.S. feedgrain shipments, are exported from the Pacific Northwest.