Laserfiche WebLink
<br />28 <br /> <br /> <br />002478 <br /> <br />Following the large scouring event during the channel-cleaning flows of May <br />1965, the bed at the Upper Cableway never refilled to pre-dam elevations. The Upper <br />Cableway discharge measurements made between May 1965 and December 1966 show <br />that the elevation of the bed at its maximum fill following the 1965 scouring event was <br />still about 6 m lower than the typical filled-condition bed elevation prior to May 1965. <br />These changes are also recorded in the Reclamation surveys made between 1956 and <br />1965. Subsequent surveys at this cross-section show that the thalweg at the Upper <br />Cableway has never been higher than 0.3 m above the elevation measured in December <br />1966. By January 2000, the bed had degraded an additional 2.2 m lower than the lowest <br />elevation measured in 1965. Although the post-dam measurements are infrequent <br />compared to the pre-dam measurements and may miss periods of bed-sediment <br />aggradation, the timing of these measurements suggests that sediment accumulation has <br />not occurred since 1965. <br /> <br />Lower Lees Ferry Cableway <br />The time series of minimum bed elevation for the Lower Cableway has frequent <br />and wide gaps between measurements. Most Lower Cableway measurements were made <br />at high discharge, and therefore tend to represent the bed in a scoured condition and do <br />not describe the annual refilling of the channel, which occurred during seasons of lower <br />average discharge (Figure 13). During pre-dam floods, the bed typically scoured to an <br />elevation of about 941 m. The few measurements that were made in months other than <br />the snowmelt flood season indicate that the cross-section filled to about 945 m. The <br />January 2000 measurement shows that there has been far less post-dam degradation at the <br />Lower Cableway than 0.8 km upstream at the Upper Cableway. The 2000 measurement <br />was made at a discharge and time of year when the bed at the Lower Cableway was <br />typically at a maximum and is probably representative of the post-dam filled condition. <br />The bed is at approximately the same elevation as pre-dam years during the annual flood. <br />Post-dam erosion has not degraded the bed to below the elevation of pre-dam maximum <br />scour, as has occurred at the Upper Cableway. <br />