Rafters are being warned that a ban on alcohol along the banks of the American River between Hazel and Watt Avenues will be strictly enforced this holiday weekend.

Steve Flannery, a Sacramento County Park Ranger said as many as 20 park rangers will be patrolling the busy stretch of river over the weekend. Sheriff's deputies with the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department and officers with the Rancho Cordova Police Department will also be available if need be, said Flannery.

The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously in August 2006 to ban alcohol along the banks of the river during the Memorial, Fourth of July and Labor Day holidays.

The move came after thousands of teens and young adults crowded onto rafts on the American River over the July 4th holiday in 2005. By late afternoon, islands along the river and beaches on the river's edge became awash in beer bottles, nudity, fights and other drunken behavior.

The county's ban on alcohol does not apply to rafters while they are floating down the river because the state controls the actual waterway.
However, a bill that would extend the ban to the river is working its way through the State Legislature.