Lawsuit Filed to Halt Canal Project That Could Threaten Wetlands

By Ed Joyce / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published May 9, 2007 at 12:38 PM PDT

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

There's a new lawsuit challenging a plan to line part of the All-American Canal with concrete. The 80-mile long canal brings Colorado River water to San Diego and Imperial Counties. KPBS reporter Ed J

There's a new lawsuit challenging a plan to line part of the All-American Canal with concrete. The 80-mile long canal brings Colorado River water to San Diego and Imperial Counties. KPBS reporter Ed Joyce has details.

Water officials want to line a 23-mile stretch of the irrigation canal with concrete to block leaks and save water. The San Diego County Water Authority says lining the canal will save enough water to meet the needs of half-a-million people each year for more than a century. Lawsuits challenging the plan were dismissed last month. But a new lawsuit now seeks to stop the project.

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Kevin Kelley is with the Imperial Irrigation District, which operates the canal.

Kelley : The briefing that we, that our board received yesterday, is: this is a new challenge, but we don't expect it to delay the project further.

Kelley says construction is expected to start next month. Several groups claim the project could harm a fragile wetland area and leave many villages in the Mexicali Valley south of the border without water. Those villages have relied on the seeping water from the earthen canal for decades.

Ed Joyce, KPBS News.

Ed Joyce

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Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

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