Water Officials Worried Now About Next Year

By Ed Joyce / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published June 19, 2007 at 7:00 AM PDT

This story was published more than 17 years ago.

Southern California is suffering through a severe dry spell. San Diego is headed for its fourth driest year on record. Los Angeles is headed for its driest year ever. KPBS reporter Ed Joyce says water

Southern California is suffering through a severe dry spell. San Diego is headed for its fourth driest year on record. Los Angeles is headed for its driest year ever. KPBS reporter Ed Joyce says water agencies are asking us to conserve.

The region's dry spell has water agencies renewing the call for us to conserve. The tips should sound familiar by now: stop over-watering plants, take shorter showers, don't use a hose to wash down the driveway and fix those leaky faucets.

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Jeff Kightlinger is the General Manager for the Metropolitan Water District , which supplies most of the region's water. He says supplies are adequate to weather a long, hot summer. But he worries about next year.

Kightlinger : The Colorado River is less than 50 percent full, all of its storage, so that is definitely worrisome. This year we've had a very dry year in Northern California, which is Metropolitan's other significant source of supply. So hopefully it's just a dry year and not the signal of a -- the beginning of a statewide drought.

He says the more water we can conserve now, the better supply will be going forward. Many forecasters predict that dry, warm conditions will continue into next year.

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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