As part of its re-licensing agreement Avista has modified the Spokane riverbed on the north side of the river near the Flourmill.

Long before Avista started building dams along the Spokane River, entrepeneuers were blasting away at the north channel trying to direct the flow of water past the paddle wheels for their mills. During the summer months all the water ended up in this man made channel.

Now Avista has done some work to spread the water around. Avista filled in some of the man-made cuts in the channel with a material that looks like basalt and redistributed the flow of water.

Now, instead of dropping through one chute, there's more whitewater and the sounds of rapids thanks to the riverbed rehabilitation.

Avista has to maintain a minimum flow of 300 cubic feet per second in the north channel as part of its licensing requirements throughout the year.

Beginning Tuesday, Avista begins its annual drawdown of Lake Coeur d' Alene for the winter. Water levels above the Post Falls Dam should drop a foot during the month of September.