A steady stream of water spilled from Lake Casitas Friday, a few days after officials declared the Ojai Valley reservoir had reached capacity for the first time in a quarter century.
Just two years earlier, the drought-stressed reservoir, which provides drinking water for the Ojai Valley and parts of Ventura, had dropped under 30%. The Casitas Municipal Water District was looking at emergency measures if conditions didn’t improve, board President Richard Hajas said.
Now, the lake is full, holding roughly 20 years of water, he said Friday.
The lake bounced back as last year’s storms pushed the water level over 70%. For the first time in years, residents were no longer required to curb their water use or risk fines. After a second wet winter, the reservoir reached full capacity.
Casitas General Manager Mike Flood called it the fastest rebound in the lake’s history.
On Tuesday, the lake reached the level of the spillway. Some water has cascaded down the spillway on and off, but flows have remained low. Designed to keep water from overtopping the dam, the spillway funnels the excess into Coyote Creek.
Lake Casitas was OK’d by federal officials in 1956 and construction on the dam was completed a few years later. It took more than a decade before the lake filled. Since then, the spillway has operated eight times starting in 1978.
The lake last spilled in 1998. It came close again in 2005, but the district stopped diverting water from the Ventura River to slow things down during a damaging storm season.
Over the next decade, lake levels dropped to record lows during a yearslong drought and kept falling as the dry conditions dragged on. In 2022, the lake, which receives no imported water, dropped to 28% full.
Casitas stopped Ventura River diversions when the lake level reached the spillway this week. Roughly 30 to 40% of flows into the lake come from the diversion facility. Additional water comes from Coyote and Santa Ana creeks.
Hajas, who started working at Casitas on a construction crew in the late 1970s, grew up in Ventura. He watched the lake fill and saw it spill for the first time in 1978. Since then, he has seen levels drop in dry times, rise in wet years and then drop again.
The lake may be full now, but the rain could stop falling, Hajas said.
“This is our insurance policy,” he said, standing at the dam Friday.
Cheri Carlson covers the environment and county government for the Ventura County Star. Reach her at [email protected] or 805-437-0260.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Water spills from Lake Casitas for first time since 1998
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