Boosted by this week’s storms, Lake Casitas in the Ojai Valley reached its full capacity and started to spill on Feb. 18, officials said.
Less than two years after it last spilled, the reservoir designed to hold enough water to make it through a 20-year drought hit that mark again. On Wednesday morning, the lake reached the level of the spillway, said Mike Flood, general manager of the Casitas Municipal Water District.
Water cascaded down the spillway on and off, but flows remained low. That’s kind of the best case scenario.
“We really don’t want to spill a whole lot,” Flood said. “We want to get right up to the top like this and let it trickle down and hopefully just stay right at full for as long as we can.”
Designed to keep water from overtopping the dam, the spillway funnels the excess into Coyote Creek. Authorities reported no problems downstream as the lake started to spill.
When did Lake Casitas last spill?
The reservoir, which receives no imported water, last spilled in April 2024. Before that, it had not done so since 1998.
It came close 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, the lake level dropped to record lows during a yearslong drought.
Casitas, which provides drinking water for the Ojai Valley and parts of Ventura, fell below half full in 2015 for the first time since it had filled decades earlier.
Lake levels kept dropping. Then, storms drenched the county in back-to-back years of higher-than-normal rainfall in 2023 and 2024. Flood called it the fastest rebound in the lake’s history.
What creeks, river reach Lake Casitas?
Dry conditions returned last year, but despite forecasts saying this could be another dry year, early season storms drenched local areas.
Much of the county has recorded from 170 to over 200% of normal rainfall for this point of the water year, which runs from October through September. By mid-January, Casitas had reached over 99% full.
The district normally receives roughly 30% to 40% of the water from diverting flows from the Ventura River. Additional water comes from Coyote and Santa Ana creeks.
This year, officials stopped diverting water in early January, with the lake so close to spilling early in the season. Officials expect flows on the river to continue for several months, and the district could start diverting again in the spring, Flood said.
Cheri Carlson covers the environment for the Ventura County Star. Reach her at cheri.carlson@vcstar.com.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Lake Casitas reaches full capacity, starts to spill
Reporting by Cheri Carlson, Ventura County Star / Ventura County Star
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