Huntington District Waterways Association

Who We Are  

Members of the Huntington District Waterways Association (HDWA) are corporations, firms, partnerships and individuals who depend on the Ohio, Big Sandy and Kanawha Rivers.  These include towing companies, harbor services, shipyards, river terminals handling coal, oil and chemicals, petroleum companies, chemical companies and marine educators.  Currently there are over 40 member companies. Their 5,000 Tri-State employees, along with their families, depend on the continued commercial use of this region’s navigable rivers. 

The objective and purpose of the Huntington District Waterways Association is to promote and protect commercial navigation on inland waterways by all proper means including: 

• Originating, approving and supporting worthy and justifiable river and harbor improvements and outside interests which directly affect navigation. 
  
• Aiding in every possible and proper way the prevention of placing any obstruction or danger to navigation. 
  
• Advocating the adoption of adequate and safe operating rules for navigation in the inland waterways ad harbors. 
  
• Supporting flood control, conservation and low flow augmentation projects which benefit navigation. 
  
• Advocating the continuation of the traditional use of the waterways of the United States. 
  
• The development and operation of such other programs and the publication and dissemination of such information as may serve the above objectives.

About the Port of Huntington Tri-State

On November 1, 2000, officials gathered to welcome an expanded port designation.  According to John Carr, Deputy Highway Engineer with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, “This marks the return of the Tri-State to national prominence in river transportation.” 

Previously, the Port of Huntington encompassed only 14 miles of the Ohio River in the vicinity of Huntington.  The new designation includes 100 miles of the Ohio River from the mouth of the Scioto River near Portsmouth, stretching upstream to the northern boundary of Gallia County; 9 miles of the Big Sandy and 90 miles of the Kanawha. 

The Port of Huntington Tri-State is the largest inland shipping port in the United States and the sixth largest among all ports, including those on the coasts.  With this new boundary definition, the Port of Huntington Tri-State’s tonnage, moves over 80 million tons per year.  This equates to a cargo value of $5.3 billion of coal, petroleum, chemicals, steel and other bulk products being efficiently transported on the regions waterways.