Local Water Officials: Fix Delta

By Ed Joyce / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published October 23, 2008 at 3:00 AM PDT

This story was published more than 15 years ago.

The agency that supplies most of San Diego County's water is mapping out strategies to keep that supply flowing over the next 20 years. Local officials have some ideas of how to do that, as KPBS Envir

The agency that supplies most of San Diego County's water is mapping out strategies to keep that supply flowing over the next 20 years. Local officials have some ideas of how to do that, as KPBS Environmental Reporter Ed Joyce explains.

The Metropolitan Water District must meet the future needs of 18 million water users in San Diego and five other Southern California counties.

Metropolitan supplies more than 80-percent of the water used in the county and most of that comes from the Sacramento River Delta.

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Ken Weinberg is Director of Water Resources for the San Diego County Water Authority.

He says fixing the Delta is key to ensuring future supply.

Weinberg : These last few years have really shown us how fragile that system is and how much reliance we have here in Southern California but the state as a whole has on that for water supply. The key message that we want to get across to Metropolitan is focus on fixing the Delta and do it soon.

Ongoing drought conditions and a federal judge's ruling that limits the amount of water that can be pumped from the Delta threaten future supplies.

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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