Sacramento Delta Pumps To Resume Sunday

By Ed Joyce / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published June 8, 2007 at 12:52 PM PDT

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

The California Department of Water Resources plans to resume limited pumping Sunday in the Sacramento River Delta. The state water project supplies drinking water to more than two-thirds of the state'

The California Department of Water Resources plans to resume limited pumping Sunday in the Sacramento River Delta. The state water project supplies drinking water to more than two-thirds of the state's population, including San Diego. KPBS reporter Ed Joyce tells us that San Diego County farmers may have their supplies interrupted.

The pumps were shut down nine days ago to help protect threatened Delta smelt. The smelt have long been thought to be indicators of the Delta ecosystem's overall health.

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The main supplier of water to San Diego County farmers is the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which imports water from the Delta. Metro has told the farmers their supplies could be cut 30 percent due to the limited supply.

Eric Larson is with the San Diego County Farm Bureau.

Larson : Farmers in San Diego County know that they're kind of on the line if those supplies drop down to a level where Metropolitan thinks they're taking a risk to deliver water to the farmers.

Larson says the timing couldn't be worse with the weather getting warmer.

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Larson : The people that probably would be affected the most and the fastest would be nursery crop growers who are growing potted plants. Because there's a very small amount of soil to buffer the roots, there's just that finite amount of soil in a pot and you really have to keep that moist to maintain that.

He says avocado growers are also at risk.

The State Water Project supplies water to 25 million Californians and 750,000 acres of farmland. Once the pumps start again, The Department of Water Resources and Department of Fish and Game will monitor the Delta smelt. The agencies will decide on a day-to-day basis if pumping should continue.

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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