LITTLETON — The City of Littleton closed the South Platte River to floating on Saturday, in-part due to a large tubing event scheduled there for that day.
Thousands of people responded to the Facebook event for the 2nd annual Floating Party Tubing down the Platte River put on by Burns Joes Fitness.
Mayor Debbie Brinkman said the city requires permits for events that size but the organizers never got one.
“After numerous attempts to resolve this with the organizer it became clear that the city needed to do what was necessary to protect the safety of people and property,” said Brinkman.
Trevor Hill wasn’t one of the people who responded to the event on Facebook but he was certainly affected by it.
“I just came out to a tubing thing and enjoy a birthday party,” said Hill "But it looks like it’s closed.”
When Hill drove up he found closed signs and security watching for those breaking the rule.
“I mean it sucks for us but if I was the city I would be like, I don’t know if I want a bunch of people drinking and throwing trash everywhere,” said Hill.
Skot Latona manages South Platte Park. He says the average amount of water flowing through the area is 400 cubic feet per second. On Saturday the water was flowing at just 30 cubic feet per second.
“The river has no water in it this year so having people tube the river would be pretty destructive to the habitat,” said Latona.
Ankle deep water like this is dangerous for people because it can damage the tubes and damage people’s bottoms as they go through the rocky areas.
Latona said it can be dangerous for animals too
“Their feet would be crushing the Crayfish and the Crayfish and aquatic life at the bottom of the river.”
It's the lowest water levels Latona has seen since 2003
“This is just what’s left of the snowmelt from a pretty bad winter,” he said.
Their goal is to make sure everyone stays safe.
“We are definitely not fun haters we love people coming out we just need to do it in such a way that the river will still be here for other people to use,” he said.
The South Platte River reopened for tubing on Sunday but Latona still doesn’t recommend it because of the low water levels.
