Catch Up Week, Part 3: Ohio River traffic, first quarter, by the numbers

As I've often noted, there are fewer boats going up and down the Ohio River -- at least in my part of it -- than there were a few years ago. There are even fewer than last year. Here, based on numbers compiled on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers web site, are tonnage numbers for the twenty locks and dams on the Ohio, from Pittsburgh to Cairo.

Ohio River cargo movements, first quarter 2015
Tons in thousands
	TOTAL 1Q			Pct Change
	TOTAL	Coal	Petrol	TOTAL	Coal	Petrol
Emsworth	3717.59	2959.4	211.83	-8%	-9%	-4%
Dashields	3843.8	2931.1	383.94	-8%	-11%	19%
Montgomery	3930.2	2716.27	394.11	-15%	-19%	26%
New Cumberland	6296.02	3741.4	759.48	-14%	-28%	37%
Pike Island	7100.18	4181.3	969.4	-9%	-23%	36%
Hannibal	9980.4	6561.31	965.3	-3%	-13%	40%
Willow Island	9604	6143.01	980.3	0%	-10%	45%
Belleville	9954.38	6090.01	1049.34	-2%	-12%	22%
Racine	10443.74	6456.17	1079.51	-2%	-11%	22%
RCByrd	8800.53	3894.91	1439.52	-7%	-27%	20%
Greenup	9104.22	3262.69	1965.09	-8%	-28%	3%
Meldahl	9951.28	4052.48	1948.17	-10%	-28%	7%
Markland	11355.73	4582.39	1464.49	-16%	-28%	5%
McAlpine	15040.29	7651.68	1548.74	-14%	-17%	11%
Cannelton	15917.45	7694.03	1265.13	-8%	-17%	10%
Newburgh	17321.7	8096.52	1364.04	-13%	-23%	11%
JTMyers	15521.54	4074.06	1399.37	-7%	-25%	11%
Smithland	15796.97	4528.86	1359.95	-12%	-22%	8%
LD 52	19093.7	3631.33	1408.87	-12%	-27%	2%
LD 53	18889.23	2439.86	1394.52	-3%	-12%	-2%

I did an article a couple of weeks ago for The State Journal, the weekly newspaper in Charleston where I once worked full-time. In the article, I noted the increase in petroleum shipments and tried to get comment from Marathon Petroleum, unsuccessfully. The State Journal focuses on West Virginia, so my article did, too.

These numbers are the what, not the why, of course. But the federal Energy Information Administration is predicting a decrease nationally in coal production this year, and with coal being the major commodity moved on all but the lower part of the Ohio, it's no surprise that traffic numbers are down.