[carom]

It's really easy for me to say this from far away, but IMHO it is never a good idea to try and mess with natural waterways or Mother Nature. To me it's is best summed up in the old sports cliche "you can't stop it, you can only hope to contain it." Most large scale waterway engineering I know of just seems like band aid a solution that generally create bigger issues down the road. The idea of fast tracking flow through/around the city all of the time when it is only required very infrequently scares me and I think would have some serious long term consequences.

If it were up to me I would put some bigger berms along the Bow and make sure everyone that lives in a flood plain is prepared by mandating insurance and having really good, frequently updated evac measures in place.