San Diego County Residents Still Urged to Conserve Water

By Ed Joyce / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published March 24, 2008 at 6:34 AM PDT

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

In the coming months, you'll likely see more advertising in San Diego County about water conservation. Historic dry conditions in the Colorado River Basin and restrictions on supply from Northern Cali

In the coming months, you'll likely see more advertising in San Diego County about water conservation. Historic dry conditions in the Colorado River Basin and restrictions on supply from Northern California are stretching already-limited supplies. KPBS Reporter Ed Joyce has more.

Ken Weinberg is the director of water resources for the San Diego County Water Authority. He says water supplies will be reduced up to 30 percent from Northern California to protect an endangered fish.

Become a KPBS sponsor

Weinberg says those restrictions are expected to continue for several years. Combined with a drought on the Colorado River, he says the authority faces unprecedented challenges to meet summer demand.

Weinberg: The more water we use this summer, if we have to take water out of reservoirs and we have to go out and buy water from farmers in Northern California, that's going to be less water available next year. And because the situation is not a one year situation it's, it's for the foreseeable future we really have to be efficient with everything we have now.

Weinberg says the authority is now at stage 2 of its drought management plan. He says without enough conservation, the next step in that plan calls for mandatory cutbacks.

Ed Joyce, KPBS News.

Ed Joyce

twitter

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.

See stories by Ed Joyce