Rob,

If you go to the link above and click on Woodland track info, you can see from the map that the course is along ways from the river. I went to the races, it was dug out in a wheat field, That is ajacent to wallace slough. Wallace slough is a diked and pumped irrigation ditch. Unless they are pumping water back into the lewis, there should be no water quality issues. As far as the pumping issue, out of the lewis, This was at a farm, on ag-land. I don't belive they would have been in any violation of f/w laws. I assume they have a screened intake on the irrigation pump. If not, it's not the races fault, but the farmer's or irrigation district's fault.

Please don't be so quick to bash the races. It was a great time, and some very impressive racing. It also would be a great boost for woodland's economy. I could not see any problems with the location, and the way the races were conducted. The only problem that I could see would be the noise, but the trains run through there on the half hour and are as loud or louder than the boats.

I think the fish in the lewis are safe from the sprint boats

Aaron