Ban Urged on Toxic Cargoes at Lake Casitas : Transportation: Water officials and others want to keep large truckloads of hazardous materials off the winding road.

Alarmed by heavy truck traffic that was diverted through Ventura County’s backcountry last week, water officials and environmentalists on Thursday called for large trucks carrying hazardous materials to be banned from the winding road beside Lake Casitas.

The drinking water of 50,000 people in Ventura, Ojai and the surrounding area could be contaminated if a truck traveling along California 150 crashes and dumps its toxic cargo into the lake, officials said.

While workers cleaned up a hazardous waste spill from a train derailment along the Ventura Freeway near Seacliff, hundreds of tankers and tractor-trailers were rerouted over the winding highway for five days last week.

“If there was a spill (near the lake), there is presently no method of getting in and cleaning it up,” said Dick Barnett, engineering department manager of the Casitas Municipal Water District. “We’re suggesting complete closure for hazardous trucks.”

Ojai environmentalist Pat Baggerly agreed.

“We wish Caltrans would find a way to route the trucks away from the drinking supply,” Baggerly said. “We’ve been concerned about that for some time.”

Despite the concern, Caltrans officials say few trucks use California 150 near the lake under normal circumstances.

Nevertheless, Beverly O’Gorman, administrative assistant to state Sen. Gary Hart (D-Santa Barbara), said she will investigate how frequently the road is traveled. Hart was instrumental several years ago in securing legislation to close California 154 along Lake Cachuma--which supplies Santa Barbara’s drinking water--to trucks carrying hazardous materials, O’Gorman said.

“We’re certainly going to look at Lake Casitas,” she said. “I know Sen. Hart would want to do all he could to get that road closed, if it was necessary.”

O’Gorman said Hart’s office also plans to identify other routes to use in case the freeway between Ventura and Santa Barbara is closed again.

“We need to think about this in case there’s another crisis,” O’Gorman said.

Hart could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Wayne Johnson, Caltrans highway superintendent, said the heavy traffic was diverted along California 150 near the lake last week because it was the only practical detour available.

Johnson said traffic could have been rerouted through Fillmore along California 126 to Saugus, then north along the Golden State Freeway to California 166, then west to Santa Maria and finally south to Santa Barbara along the Ventura Freeway, adding about 200 miles to the trip.

Nevertheless, Jim Loebl, Ojai mayor and attorney for the Casitas Municipal Water District, said the long detour should be used to protect the lake.

“It’s a long way around, there’s no question about it,” Loebl said. “But to avoid contamination of the lake, it’s certainly worth it.”