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<br /> <br />Sa[t 9Uver <br /> <br />little affected. Certain cobble bars were scoured away. Some banks <br />were severely eroded. But this river. like other natural rivers. gives back <br />almost as much as it takes away. Where the river is confined by bed. <br />rock within the Salt River Canyon. tremendous quantities of new sand <br />were deposited within eddies and along the channel margins. Clean <br />new beaches remained perched 40 feet above the river after the flood <br />receded. Cobble bars and boulder fans within the channel were <br />reworked and in many places. built up. Roosevelt Lake acts as the <br />upper Salt's temporary base level. and farmers along the lake's margin <br />were pleased to find new topsoil in their fields after the floods re- <br />ceded.ln the days prior to construction of Roosevelt Dam, such a <br />flood would have inundated a broad swath of the desert where <br />Phoenix now exists; terraces of sediment would have been deposited <br />throughout that floodplain. <br />The upper Salt River has all the characteristics of a healthy unregu- <br />lated river. Typical of rivers in the Southwest, it displays a wide range of <br />flow and sediment transport - it is capable of quickly changing from <br />minimal flow to awesome flood. This river is always in the process of <br />adjusting its channel to the equilibrium that exists between erosion <br />and deposition. The Salt offers a standard against which to compare <br />regulated rivers. <br /> <br />~ <br /> <br /> <br />17 <br />