I appreaciate your concern John. Yeah 10 inches would probably make wading a little more difficult crossing the river to the 1st Island. I would be like some extra tail water that would not fall out for the return trip. This is an issue that has been around awhile and seems to crop up only when there is drought conditions. Yea the summer and fall are problems and it would be nice to see some extra water at those times and during the spawn.

Min flow is an issue that has galvanized all groups concerned with the river. But we either have min flow or not (I don't think we will see it for in the near future) and if the infrastructure is put in place to achieve it I think it would be hard to micro manage it after the fact.

Remember it does take an act of congress and the presidents signiture to change the mandate. Oh if we only knew then what we know now or even 100 years from now.

I do agree that O'2 is a bigger problem but the momentum behind min flow is much greater.

A weir dam has got to be cheaper and politically easier to deal with as hopefully it would leave SWPA out of the equation. I don't think it would affect the lumnology but would greatly affect the benthic by adding O'2 for all the little creatures. We might loose a little C&R area though depending on where would be the best place to put the Dam thing. There are test holes that were drilled 7 or 8 years ago. My guess would be where the old bridge use to cross. You can still see some of the concrete on the left bank (Baxter co side) about 100 yards or so upstream of the access. We'd loose a few hundred yards of C&R area if my guess is right. It may not even be feasable but we all agree that something has to be done.

If however we do get 6to10 inches of extra water via min flow I don't guess you'll be wading to the first island. I don't think that would be a legit argument to make to the corps or the SWPA that would get any traction.

Jimmy T.