Lake Casitas facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Lake Casitas |
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 Lake Casitas
Location in California
Lake Casitas
Location in the United States
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| Location | Ventura County, California |
| Coordinates | 34°23′33″N 119°20′05″W / 34.3924°N 119.3346°W |
| Lake type | Reservoir |
| Primary inflows | Coyote Creek |
| Primary outflows | Coyote Creek |
| Catchment area | 39 sq mi (100 km2) |
| Basin countries | United States |
| Managing agency | Casitas Municipal Water District |
| Max. length | 3.3 mi (5.3 km) |
| Max. width | 1.9 mi (3 km) |
| Surface area | 1,100 acres (450 ha) |
| Max. depth | 240 feet (73 m) |
| Water volume | 254,000 acre⋅ft (313,000,000 m3) |
| Shore length1 | 32.4 miles (52.1 km) |
| Surface elevation | 338 ft (103 m) |
| Islands | Main Island |
| Settlements | Oak View, Ojai |
| 1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure. | |
Lake Casitas is a reservoir in Ventura County, California, built by the United States Bureau of Reclamation and completed in 1959. The project provides drinking water and water for irrigation. A secondary benefit is flood control. It was the venue for canoeing and rowing at the 1984 Summer Olympics.
Casitas Dam was constructed on Coyote Creek, two miles (3 km) before it joins the Ventura River. Santa Ana Creek and North Fork Coyote Creek also flow into the lake. The system was designed for water from the Ventura River to be diverted into a canal under specific conditions since the impounded watershed is not sufficient to fill the lake. The dam is 279 ft (85 m) creating a lake capacity of 254,000 acre⋅ft (313,000,000 m3). The dam was built as part of the Ventura River Project. In the center of Lake Casitas is 2 km Main Island, whose peak rises more than 500 feet (150 m) from the lake surface.
Regulations
Human contact with the water is prohibited by the Board of Directors at the Casitas Municipal Water District. The board states that since the Lake is used for drinking water, body contact with water is not allowed, but fishing, boating, rowing and camping are permitted. During the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, Lake Casitas hosted the canoeing and rowing events. The lake was used as the site for filming the scenes of Camp Greenlake in the 19th century. The lake featured in the 2003 film Holes.
The "no body contact with water" lake policy was established by The Casitas Municipal Water District in the 1950s and 1960s because the lake did not have a filtration system in place. In the 1990s a multimillion-dollar filtration system upgrade was made to the Lake Casitas facility. The US Department of the Interior conducted a 10-year study on the lake where allowing body contact with water was explored. The study reported, "The capabilities of the current water filtration system to handle the additional burden of body contact were called into question. The system was shown to exceed current regulatory standards, and would “probably” be sufficient to mitigate body contact pollution as well." The Casitas Municipal Water District has not significantly changed the "no body contact with water" regulations in response to the facilities upgrade.
Images for kids
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Lake Casitas as seen looking eastward from California State Route 150
