Council to Discuss San Diego's Water Supply Outlook

By Ed Joyce / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published October 8, 2007 at 5:40 AM PDT

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

The San Diego City Council gets briefed this morning on the outlook for regional water supplies. One of the county's main water suppliers says we should expect less water next year. KPBS Reporter Ed J

The San Diego City Council gets briefed this morning on the outlook for regional water supplies. One of the county's main water suppliers says we should expect less water next year. KPBS Reporter Ed Joyce has details.

The council will be told that water supplies are fine through this year, but next year will be a challenge. Bob Muir is with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California , which supplies about 75 percent of San Diego County's water.

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Muir: Not only are we dealing with a record dry year in Southern California, we're also dealing with multiple years of drought on the Colorado River as well. And now Southern California must prepare for a federal court decision later this year that could significantly reduce the amount of water that we get from Northern California.

A judge decided to reduce the amount of water pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to protect an endangered fish. Muir says the district started withdrawing water from storage to meet current demand this summer. He says that means the district will have less flexibility to meet next year's demand in the region, including San Diego.

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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