Pacific Northwest Waterways Association

Pacific Northwest Waterways Association

Pacific Northwest Waterways Association
I’m KayDee Gilkey with the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report.

There is one place that the many, varied interests that use the Northwest’s rivers come together and collaborate for the benefit of the river transportation system. The Pacific Northwest Waterways Association is a nearly 80 year member association who advocates for federal funding for our region’s navigation projects and deals with public policies pertaining to transportation, energy, trade and environmental issues on behalf of ports, farmers, utilities, and shippers.

PNWA Executive Director Kristin Meira shares more.
Meira: “We have over 130 member-organizations that are part of PNWA and we not only advocate for navigation projects on the Columbia and Snake river systems but also in Puget Sound and down the Oregon coast all the way into Northern California. So we have a broad regional approach and have been very successful.”

Meira says that within PNWA everyone comes together and with collaboration with the U.S. Corp of Engineers PNWA determines their priorities.

Meira: “We carry our message -- just not here in the Northwest -- but all the way to Washington, D.C. We spend a lot of time at Capitol Hill, at Corp headquarters, and with the Administration educating them about why these projects are important, not only to the Northwest and our farmers out here and the folks that make a living on our river systems,they are truly important to the nation and critical to our economic recovery.”
 

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