Fifty Years In, Oklahoma-Based River Corridor Faces Millions In Backlogged Repairs
/ Barges float on the McClellan-Kerr Navigation system at the Port of Catoosa near Tulsa, Okla. Barges hold 15,000 tons of soybeans, grain or fertilizer. Because of the lower costs and connection to the coast, farmers rely on the system. When countries like China buy soybeans and grain, that journey might start in a port in the land-locked state of Oklahoma. Farmers in states like Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas and Colorado rely on a 445-mile water highway called the McClellan-Kerr Navigation System to ship their crops like soybeans and grain across the world. The system is now 50 years...