Limits Placed on Weekend Use of Castaic Lake

Los Angeles County health and parks officials announced Friday that, starting today, the number of swimmers allowed at Castaic Lake will be restricted on weekends to cut down on the presence of potentially harmful bacteria in the water.

It was the first time in five years that county parks officials have restricted access to a swimming lake because of bacteria, said Curt Robertson, a spokesman for the Department of Parks and Recreation. In 1985, parks officials declared the Santa Fe Dam in Irwindale off-limits to swimmers for two weeks.

“It’s out of the ordinary,” Robertson said of Friday’s announcement.

This summer, there have been no reported cases of illness associated with bacteria in Castaic Lake, a popular recreation area about 10 miles north of Santa Clarita. The bacteria can cause diarrhea but are not usually associated with serious illness, said Jack Petralia, director of the Bureau of Environmental Protection for the county’s Department of Health Services.

The bacteria can come from a variety of sources, from farm runoff to waterfowl to human waste. “Much as we try to discourage this, people do take their babies into the water,” Petralia said. But the public should not assume, he said, that the problem is caused entirely by diapers in the lake.

Reducing the number of bathers in the lake should keep the bacteria within safe levels, Petralia said.

Parks workers will stop bathers from entering the swimming areas once the lake’s parking lot, which has about 1,500 spaces, becomes full. That formula will allow about 2,200 swimmers in the lake.

During the summer, Castaic Lake typically attracts about 3,000 swimmers on Saturdays and up to 4,000 on Sundays, said Brian Roney, assistant superintendent at the lake.

On Friday, work crews erected temporary fencing to help parks officials regulate the number of bathers at the lake. Swimming on weekends at Castaic Lake will be restricted for at least six weeks.

In response to the bacteria problem, parks officials will install an aerator, about the size of a large office desk, which will help circulate water, lower the water temperature and thus cut down on the presence of bacteria, Roney said.

An aerator, which Roney compared to an underwater blender, was installed eight years ago after high bacteria levels forced parks officials to close Castaic Lake for most of the summer.

A study was unable to pinpoint the exact source of the bacteria at the time, he said.