Playing In The South Platte River - Seriously?

I went for a bike ride this past weekend, going from my condo across the street from the University of Denver to Sloan's Lake Park and back. As usual, midway during the ride, I crossed the pedestrian bridge over the South Platte River.  There are now a lot of upscale apartment buildings on either side of that waterway, and a lot of the residents of these complexes take their dogs to the river to play. Some of these apartment dwellers even go into the water themselves. Big mistake. I am amazed they don't just dissolve in the water as you watch them.

After I circled Sloan's Lake, I headed home, and crossed back over the South Platte at Confluence Park. This is where Cherry Creek empties into the Platte, and is where the City of Denver actually began.  As you can see in the photograph on the right, there are a lot of people who play in the water here, and either don't know or don't care that this river is on the EPA's list of impaired waterways, with E. Coli as "the representative pathogen species." Yuk!  Social distancing is of no help in this situation.  It is just a question of what will get you first.