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That was a good article Christof. I hope that their models are correct, so they don't push more sediment down river to Lake Mead. If they do, they could possibly lower the life expectancy of the reservoir costing taxpayer millions of dollars to replace a reservoir that was poorly planned to begin with. However since the reservoir is so large, maybe 800,000 tons of sediment is a negligible amount. If it's successful, there could be great benefits such as allowing other types of vegetation to replace the non-native salt cedars since floods allow seeds of willows and cottonwoods to disperse and germinate along the river banks. Also, it would be great for all of us river runners to have larger beaches and more diverse fisheries some day.
Did this flood coincide with the death of the man at Hance Rapids? From my one Grand Canyon trip, I remember that rapid as being one of the more dangerous ones. It's one of the first big ones in the "Gorge" and I can't imagine what it would look like at 47,000 cfs since we ran it at only 18,000. My condolences to his family.
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