Okay. I just want to speak to that.
The reality is that on the ground, at the site, there are conditions under which you can access that gravel site in a safe way, and there are conditions under which you can't. We have to actually make an on-site decision at the time. We have to actually evaluate the flow of the river at that time relative to the conditions that would safely permit access to that gravel location. So that's made at the time and takes into consideration the river conditions.
The river last year, earlier than when the gravel was removed, was very high, and then it began to drop quite rapidly at about the time the decision was made to allow the causeway to be put into place. The point I'm trying to make here is that you have to take into consideration the local conditions. And your ability to use average flow conditions and so forth to shape what you actually do on the ground is limited. You have to use the conditions that exist at the time the decision to put in that causeway is being made.
With respect to the community, which is another point you raised, it is true, and I certainly received calls from some individuals, at least one of whom spoke to your group, which certainly caused me to want to talk to my staff about what was going on, and which, in addition to their own observations, led to the changes I've already spoken about: the installation of the culvert, and finally, the decision to cease the operations and remove the causeway.
Again, I would just say that all of this was occurring in one week: completing the causeway, deciding to stop the gravel, and starting to decommission the causeway. And this was all happening while the river was dropping, and we were taking into consideration the local conditions.
So I think, in summary, we have to respond to the conditions that exist in the river at that time. The river conditions were that the flow was lower than normal, but it wasn't the lowest flow we'd ever observed. Clearly that was not the case. It is my understanding that it was slightly below average. We took into consideration the conditions of the river flow at that particular moment. The input into that decision was certainly supported, based on advice from the community, some of whose members you've spoken of today, and our own observations from staff on-site.
I'm going to ask if Mr. Wild wants to talk a little bit about the monitoring issues you've raised.