Matthew Diebel

USATODAY

A nudist resort in Northern California has been accused of stealing water from a local creek during the state's severe drought, according to local news media.

Authorities from the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, which protects wildlife habitat, said the clothing-optional Lupin Lodge had been diverting water, some of which was used to fill the resort's swimming pool, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.

The lodge, situated near Los Gatos in the San Francisco Bay Area, was stealing about 6,000 gallons of creek water per day for more than seven weeks, Midpeninsula assistant general manager Kevin Woodhouse told the Times.

After discovering the alleged diversion, rangers from Midpeninsula arrived at the camp and ripped out a pipeline that had been funneling water to the resort, said the San Jose Mercury News.

And one nudist who encountered the rangers during his morning hike on Midpeninsula property was threatened with a citation for trespassing, reports the newspaper.

"They said, 'You can't be here. You're on our property,'" said Errol Strider, 70, one of about 50 full-time residents who live in yurts, cabins and trailers on the 110-acre property, which was founded in the 1930s. "I was wearing tennis shoes and my little fanny pack," he told the Mercury News. "I discreetly turned my fanny pack to a front pack where it stayed for the rest of the conversation."

The owners of the resort, Glyn and Lori Kay Stout, told the Times that they have a historic right to the water, which they said they have used since a drought in the 1970s and need to keep an 87,000-gallon water tank full in case of fire and for topping off the skinny-dipping pool near the clubhouse.

"The water source for Hendry's Creek is a spring-fed waterfall," Lori Kay Stout told the newspaper. "The water is tapering off and what water there is, is going on the ground instead of used for people and fire suppression."

Midpeninsula officials, however, say the Stouts are wrong and are patrolling the area to keep the lodge from attempting to steal water again, Woodhouse said.