The Placer County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to ban alcohol along a popular rafting section of the Truckee River during this year’s Fourth of July holiday.
In the past, hundreds of rafters would crowd the river during the summer. Excessive public drunkenness, litter, nudity and traumatic injuries by rafters and other revelers increased last year, causing environmental damage to the watershed and leading the county to this decision. The number of people floating down the river during the July holiday nearly doubled last year. Workers tallying the amount of river-goers at the “pipe bridge” counted 2,023 people passing under the bride in a two-hour period on July 4 2007. There were just 1,115 people passing through the same spot in 2006. Officials said they are concerned that the ban on alcohol implemented on the American River will cause people with booze to move upstream to the Truckee River. Assembly Bill 951, a ban similar to the one affecting the lower American River, passed both state houses in June 2007.
The Truckee ban only applies to the shoreline along the river. The rules mean no alcohol 3 feet from the water line, on both sides of the river from the outflow near Fanny Bridge in Tahoe City to the Alpine Meadows Bridge near River Ranch Lodge. Placer County staff notified property owners of the 80 private parcels along the riverbanks throughout the 3.5-mile stretch of river, alerting them that residents would not be regulated by the alcohol ban while on their property.
The ordinance will prohibit alcohol consumption July 4-6 this summer and July 3, 4 and 9 in 2009. Fines of $150, $500 and $1,000 will be imposed for a first, second and third offense.
A move to prohibit alcohol consumption in the waters themselves is in the works. California Senator Dave Cox authored SB 1159, which would authorize Placer County to impose the alcohol ban on the waters of the Truckee River between Fanny Bridge and River Ranch during designated summer periods. This is a liberty the county would not otherwise have. The American River, having prohibited alcohol consumption on the shoreline, passed a law last year that now prevents anyone rafting, in a floatation device or operating non-motorized watercraft to drink alcoholic beverages. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the bill into action.