Flooding has changed the Rockies forever, says scientist

CANMORE, Alta. – A leading scientist says flooding in southern Alberta has changed the Rockies and the foothills forever.

John Pomeroy, one of Canada's top water researchers, says the overflowing waters have changed everything from how the landscape will handle future flooding to the animals that live in it.

Pomeroy says Alberta towns and cities will need much better flood defences in the future to handle high rainfall events.

He says the Bow River has swallowed so much silt from eroding banks that its status as a blue-ribbon trout stream is in doubt.

Pomeroy says many of the developments that have been affected by the flooding should never have been built in the first place.