LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Drenching rains and flooding over the past two months have greatly reduced barge traffic along the 455-mile McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System and dented the finances of companies who depend on the waterway.
The navigation system stretches from Catoosa, Oklahoma to the Mississippi River and serves as a major economic engine for the region.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports that barge traffic along the route is limited because rains have filled locks and reservoirs and made the river system risky to navigate.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers estimates that 737,420 tons of cargo moved on the river in May and June — nearly a 60 percent drop from the same two-month period last year, when 1.7 million tons of cargo moved.