Agency Requests Reduced Outdoor Watering

By Ed Joyce / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published January 3, 2008 at 10:21 AM PST

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

The San Diego County Water Authority is urging residents and businesses to help the region conserve water by turning off their outdoor watering systems today in advance of three storm systems moving i

The San Diego County Water Authority is urging residents and businesses to help the region conserve water by turning off their outdoor watering systems today in advance of three storm systems moving into the region starting tonight. Water Authority officials say residents and businesses may be able to keep their landscape watering systems off for a week or more after these storms.

Residents and businesses may be able to leave their watering systems off for a week and perhaps longer depending on the amount of rainfall received and if cooler temperatures continue. To determine when it is necessary to turn water systems on, the Water Authority recommends monitoring soil moisture. Check the top inch of soil. If it still is moist, it contains enough water to supply the plants.

The region's water supplies have been impacted by extremely dry conditions around California over the last year, as well as by an eight-year drought in the Colorado River basin. In addition, court-ordered pumping restrictions on the State Water Project are now in effect. Water officials expect these restrictions to reduce water deliveries from Northern California through this year and potentially into next year.

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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