Mayor Sanders Urges Collaborative Water Conservation

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published January 16, 2008 at 2:25 PM PST

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders convened a Water Summit today with mayors from cities around San Diego and Southern California. Sanders believes if all cities commit to conserve as much water as possibl

San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders convened a Water Summit today with mayors from cities around San Diego and Southern California. Sanders believes if all cities commit to conserve as much water as possible, they will stand a better chance of getting the state to commit to a multi-million dollar water bond. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

Sanders proposed Southern California cities send Governor Schwarzenegger a letter outlining six principals.

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The first principal is that cities will commit to do everything in their power to encourage voluntary water conservation.

To that end, mayoral spokesman Fred Sainz says Sanders is again calling on citizens to conserve.

Sainz : San Diegans over-irrigate every year to the tune of quantities that would fill the Sweetwater reservoir. Every drop that we save is a drop of water that we won’t need to mandatorily conserve should we come to that later this year.

The second principal in Sanders' letter is that every city advocate for a state water bond to ensure a reliable supply of water for the southern half of the state.

The bond would also pay for more water storage and grants for recycling and desalination.

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Alison St John KPBS News.

Alison St John

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.