Yet another of Ventura’s best kept secrets, this twenty acre site, comprising three scenic ponds, is a habitat for over two hundred different species of birds. Pathways encircle these freshwater ponds, providing visitors with a never-ending vista of a seemingly unending number of swans, geese, ducks, herons, hawks and many other different species of birds.
The water to feed these ponds comes from the adjacent water reclamation facility and exits into the Santa Clara River estuary. This reclamation facility processes some seven to nine million gallons of water each day, of which approximately 540,000 thousand gallons are used to irrigate the local golf course and areas surrounding Ventura Harbor. The balance is fed into this ecological reserve.
“Venturawaterpure”, a potable, reuse pilot demonstration project, currently in operation, takes this same reclaimed water through a complex process involving sand filters, high-pressure microfiber filtering, reverse osmosis and powerful ultraviolet light exposure to produce ultra-pure drinking water. The city plans to implement this process in the future so that as much as 50% to 100% of this renewable water can be fed back into the city’s water supply by the year 2025.
A number of proposals have been considered to enhance this ecological reserve for the general public. In the meantime, it remains a virtually unknown treasure for anyone wishing to wander through this bird sanctuary. The entrance, in daylight hours, is through an unlocked gate in the chain-link fence on the entrance road to the Ventura Water Reclamation facility.
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