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Hours & Fees

Monday – Thursday: 8 a.m. to one half hour before Dusk

Friday – Sunday: 6 a.m. to one half hour before Dusk

Weekdays: $3/vehicle

Weekend: $5/vehicle

Park Tour & Maps

Gallery and facility maps of the 190 acre Recreation Preserve. You can also see what's happening right now with our Lake 4 Live Cam. Click Here

Weather Forecast

SANTEE LAKES HISTORY - A LOOK BACK - PART 1
Santee 1927 Agriculture was the primary use of land in Santee up to the 1940's. With the construction of the El Capitan Dam, the local aquifer dried up which had supplied the farmers with more than enough water. Santee transformed from a dairy farming area to the fastest growing town in San Diego County in terms of housing development.
		Ray Stoyer, Mid 1960's As a result of the transformation from agricultural area to suburbia, in 1959 Santee's most pressing water issue was not freshwater supply, but the disposal of wastewater. Ray Stoyer, the General Manager of the Santee County Water District (Padre Dam MWD), had to come up with a plan, and fast.
Santee's Options
Santee had two options. The first was to join the San Diego Metropolitan System along with other towns in the county and send poorly treated sewage into the Pacific Ocean. This option would be costly and lock Santee into a 40 year contract with the San Diego Metropolitan Sewer System.
The second option was to create a new treatment system that could handle Santee's sewage while meeting the strict State discharge requirements. This was a daunting task considering treatment technology was not well developed in 1959, but Ray Stoyer knew it could be done! Through a multi-stage treatment process, the solids and dissolved substances could easily be removed producing usable water. His idea was to clean the town’s sewage and then offer it as a low-cost water supply for irrigation on golf courses, crops, home lawns, industries, highway beautification and recreational use.

A Vision Is Born Ray Stoyer imagined a series of lakes in the lower part of Sycamore Canyon. He convinced Bill Mast, with the “Carlton Santee Corporation”, to give the town a portion of Sycamore Canyon that had been previously used for gravel mining. Mast's generosity turned out to have tremendous impact on the future of Santee. Stoyer now had an opportunity to solve the town's sewage problem while creating an asset that would turn out to draw international attention.
Santee Lakes History - Part 1 Santee Lakes History - Part 2 Santee Lakes History - Part 3 Santee Lakes History - Part 4 Santee Lakes History - Part 5 Santee Lakes History - Part 6 About Us About Recycled Water Educational Tours Santee Lakes Flora & Fauna