Lake Casitas Looks for the Right Rural and Urban Balance

Most days, Lake Casitas is a sparkling jewel nestled in canyons of chaparral. Though man-made, the reservoir near Ojai is one of the finest displays of tranquillity and natural beauty Southern California has to offer.

But on occasion, seemingly with increasing frequency, it is transformed by urban onslaught into a congested and noisy recreation center. Roaring powerboats, crowded campgrounds and speeding traffic prevail during summer holidays and some weekdays.

The reservoir’s managers are obliged to satisfy all comers, but critics say they are failing. Finding the right balance is proving more and more elusive as the region’s population surges and people search for places to play and escape to.

Now that summer is here, the debate renews again: What is becoming of Lake Casitas?

If you ask local conservation groups, the lake is oppressed by the same forces threatening the surrounding Ojai Valley, the idyllic box canyon filled with creeks, citrus trees and health spas. Residents lured to this refuge are finding that lots of others want to visit, too. That is creating gridlock on two-lane California 33 that connects to Ventura, 13 miles to the south, and dirty air--the valley is the second smoggiest community in Ventura County.

The lake is a recreation magnet for about 770,000 visitors each year. No other single outdoor recreational venue in the county, except the beach, gets as many visitors as Lake Casitas. They come to fish, hike, ride bikes and camp.

“It’s like all beautiful spots. It’s going to get loved to death,” Ojai Mayor Suza Francina said. “That’s our primary source of drinking water. It’s a precious resource. Everyone in Ventura County benefits from the lake. We all have a great interest in protecting it.”

Others don’t think things are so bad. Greg Butler, 23, is one of them. He has visited the lake several times, and surveying its glistening placid waters from the boat launch ramp, he figures he will keep coming back.

“The upkeep is pretty clean. There’s no jet skis and there’s pretty clean water. You really can’t beat this for a 20-minute drive from Oxnard,” Butler said.

Indeed, the lake has much to recommend. In the morning, coastal fog hovers over the water and parts by noon to reveal magnificent craggy peaks of the Santa Ynez Mountains towering above oak-studded shores. Mule deer sometimes swim from shore to a huge island. Grebes and mallards dabble for water bugs, a great blue heron stands guard over the fish-cleaning station and hawks and buzzards soar overhead.

The Casitas Municipal Water District, which manages the lake for the federal government, knows it has a special resource. It restricts many activities that could harm the lake. Swimming, wading and water-skiing are prohibited to keep water free of disease-causing microbes. There are no commercial signs, personal watercraft or vending machines, and development in the surrounding watershed is prohibited. Significant crime is virtually unheard of at the lake and graffiti is nonexistent. Just 3% of the shore is developed.

The lake was created to provide reliable, safe water, but the district is also charged with promoting recreational opportunities.

“We’re trying to balance a lot of cross-purposes,” said John Johnson, general manager of the water district. “Some people want to maintain the lake the way it was 20 years ago, but there’s a real need for recreation. In balancing multiple uses a whole bunch of people want, we’re giving a lot to the Ojai Valley and people in the community.”

From the Civil War to Shakespeare

Created in 1959, when a dam was completed near the confluence of the Coyote and Santa Ana creeks, the lake soon grew to 2,600 acres, principally to provide water to towns and orchards in the Ojai Valley. Recreational amenities soon followed and continue to be added today.

Casitas has something for everyone.

Depending on when you visit, you might share the lake with sailboat classes and high school cross-country races, church services and concerts. It plays host to Civil War reenactments and a Shakespeare festival. You can stay in one of 400 campgrounds clustered around the north shore and rent kayaks, bicycles, canoes and rowboats. If the kids get bored, there is a water playground near the entrance.

Model airplanes launch from a miniature airstrip near Deep Cat cove and a pilot from Santa Paula uses the lake as a watery runway for his full-size pontoon plane, much to the chagrin of the lake’s managers. A huge portion of the northeast shore was developed to accommodate spectators of rowing competition during the 1984 Olympics. An archery range is in the works and someday a Boy Scout camp might be opened near Ayers Creek, an undeveloped part of the lake.

When an angler cast a crawfish and hauled in a near world-record largemouth bass 20 years ago, a bass-fishing gold rush ensued, attracting fishermen from every corner of the country. Each year, hundreds of the high-performance bass boats charge across the lake in a roar of 200-horsepower outboards and the glint of metal-flake trim.

All those activities are beginning to pay off for the district. This fiscal year, the district will collect $1.9 million in revenue from the lake plus another $1-million grant for recreational improvements--47% more revenue from Casitas than the previous year, according to district records. About one-fourth of the district’s revenue comes from activities at the lake, and this year marks the first time fees collected at Lake Casitas will produce a profit for the district, Johnson said.

Recreation at the lake provides jobs, too. Five full-time employees work at the lake and another 30 summer positions are filled mostly by young people from the Ojai area. A restaurant, general store and boat rental concessions earned a combined $1 million from the lake last year, Johnson said.

But there is a price to pay for use of Lake Casitas. Most conspicuous is the increasingly urban feel to the lake, particularly during summer and major holiday weekends.

Last Memorial Day weekend, 13,340 people visited the lake on a single day--nearly twice as many as reside in Ojai. It can be just as crowded on Independence Day and Labor Day, Johnson said. Elbow room can get scarce; at peak periods, population density on Lake Casitas’ north shore, the only developed part of the lake, is nearly four times greater than the concentration of humanity in the city of Los Angeles.

The lake typically reverts to its quiet side during midweek, however, when just a few hundred people visit on any given weekday. Visitation is down about 9% since 1993, probably because of increased fees and declining fishing conditions, Johnson said.

In the water, boat traffic has become so heavy that traces of methyl tertiary butyl ether, or MTBE, the water-polluting fuel additive, is showing up at the treatment plant beneath the dam. Water quality is worse near the marina, where MTBE levels exceed drinking water limits by threefold, according to water quality officials. The district is considering banning boats powered by fuel containing MTBE.

Crowds and Noise Spoil Aesthetics

Local conservation groups say crowds and noise are subverting the aesthetics of the lake and chasing away some wildlife. They worry the lake, like the Ojai Valley around it, may lose the charm that made it attractive in the first place.

“We need to balance tourism against why people came here,” said Mike Krumpschmidt, president of Citizens to Preserve Ojai. “People come here because it’s a beautiful place. If we pursue tourism to the extent tourism overruns the place, then we are consuming the reason people come here. If the lake becomes even more attractive to tourists, it can overwhelm its ability to deliver a quality environmental area.”

Environmentalists say that is already occurring, and they point to a shady patch of park at the entrance to the lake as a case in point. Two years ago, a one-acre children’s water playground was installed. This year, a 55-space parking lot was added. By year’s end, the water district aims to complete a $1-million adult water park expansion called Lazy River so grown-ups can float around in inner tubes.

The Ventura Audubon Society has vigorously objected to expanding the water park, arguing that night lights, crowds and traffic will scare away wildlife. Trees used by red-tailed hawks, robins and woodpeckers have been removed, too, spoiling one of the best bird-watching sites in the county, said Jack Gillooly, a director of the local Audubon group.

“We see this as a small piece in an emerging puzzle of creeping commercialism,” Gillooly said. “It’s part of a larger issue, which is the development of the Ojai Valley itself and the loss of the rural character that attracted people to this area in the first place. People are not happy with the gradual urbanization of this area.”

Of particular concern, environmentalists say, is the way decisions are made for Lake Casitas. They charge that the district board of directors routinely waives environmental reviews of recreational projects. Many of those decisions are guided by a recreation master plan prepared by the federal government in 1958 and updated in 1970. But critics say the decisions about development at the lake need to be guided by today’s public attitudes, growth patterns and environmental laws.

“That plan is 30 years old. The district is in a time warp as far as compliance with environmental review laws,” said John Buse, an attorney for the Santa Barbara-based Environmental Defense Center.

Development of the swim park should come as no surprise, Johnson says. The master recreation plan identifies the need for pools. He said a prolonged public discussion about water quality beginning in 1994 concluded with broad community agreement that swim facilities needed to be built on shore to prevent body-water contact and bacterial pollution in the lake.

And in most cases, all the development that has occurred in the past 20 years has been confined to the same 300 acres on the north shore, Johnson said. Typically facilities are improved, not expanded, he added. It is a delicate balancing act, making the lake serve users while preserving its charm, but one he maintains has so far been a success.

“Our intent, as far as development is concerned, is that 50 years from now, you’re going to see what you have today,” Johnson said. “We want that lake to look as natural as possible long into the future.”