BOULDER — Citing expected high water flows this weekend, Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said Friday that he and Boulder police Chief Mark Beckner have decided to close Boulder Creek to tubers “for the immediate future.”
The closure, which went into effect at 7 a.m. today, includes watercraft such as rafts, belly boats and innertubes. It does not apply to kayaks and whitewater canoes.
People caught tubing on the creek after this morning can face a $50 fine.
The closed area of the creek runs from Barker Dam east of Nederland to the Weld County line, north of Erie. The closure affects all of Boulder Creek within Boulder city limits.
Sheriff’s deputies and police officers will post notices about the closure later today.
Pelle said the decision to close the creek to tubers is because city water officials expect Silver Lake to spill over sometime this weekend, adding up to 200 cubic-feet of water per second to the flow of Boulder Creek. That’s expected to push the creek’s flow rate to more than 700 cubic feet per second by Sunday.
“We start having real problems with drownings at that point,” Pelle said.
