Water Board Chair: Conservation Could Prevent Usage Restrictions

By Ed Joyce / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published September 6, 2007 at 11:54 AM PDT

This story was published more than 17 years ago.

San Diego County water managers are preparing to deal with a water shortage next year. That's because of historic dry conditions and an expected reduction in water from the state water project. KPBS r

San Diego County water managers are preparing to deal with a water shortage next year. That's because of historic dry conditions and an expected reduction in water from the state water project. KPBS reporter Ed Joyce has details.

The San Diego County Water Authority is making plans now to deal with tighter water supplies next year. Just how tight depends on a final judicial ruling next month protecting an endangered fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. More than two-thirds of the state relies on water from the Delta.

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Water Authority Board Chair Fern Steiner says whether we'll face mandatory restrictions next year depends on the Metropolitan Water District . The agency supplies 70 percent of the county's water.

Steiner : Metropolitan will determine in fact whether it will do a cutback on its water; it has some water in storage. Once we know what they're going to do on their cutback then we'll obviously have to readjust ourselves down here.

She hopes conservation efforts will prevent mandatory restrictions. But a cut in Delta water supplies and another dry year may not give officials any other option.

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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