A Most Unusual RV Park

Of all the RV parks and campgrounds in which we have stayed over the past 55 months, Padre Dam's Santee Lakes Recreation Preserve is one of the most interesting.

When entering the park, visitors and campers travel about two miles into the quarter-mile wide campground, past five of the seven lakes and a small creek to the camp sites.

Along Lake 7 are ten cabins, seven of which are right on the water’s edge and three are actually floating on the lake.

Lakes 1-5 are for day use fishing (catfish, rainbow trout, bass, and bluegill), while lakes 6-7 are for registered campers.

So far, the appearance of the grounds and the recreational activities on the lakes seem typical of a larger campground.

But then you notice the four-acre, 14,000-solar-panel project, completed in December 2008, included the construction of solar arrays mounted on the roof of an RV storage area. The system produces over one million kilowatt hours of clean energy every year, which is equal to 50% of the entire Park and Campground's power needs.

In addition, "for 50 years Padre Dam’s Santee Lakes has been a model for communities around the world. All of the water used to fill the lakes and irrigate around them is recycled. Two million gallons of water each day is recycled at our Water Reclamation Facility two miles north of the Recreation Preserve.

"We sell about 50% for use at golf courses, city parks and schools. The remaining water flows through Santee Lakes and creates a recreation area that greets more than 650,000 visitors annually.

"In addition to the recreational benefit, our water recycling project diverts two million gallons of partially treated sewage from entering the Pacific Ocean every day. That’s 730 million gallons every year!!

"We treat the sewage to stringent “Title 22” standards. How clean is it? California's standards for recycled water are the benchmarks in the United States and the world, and they allow for full body contact, such as swimming or waterskiing, where accidental ingestion is assumed" (http://www.santeelakes.com/sustainability.html#solar).

Truly, a most unusual RV park.