San Diego Forum Looks At Water Future

By Ed Joyce / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published October 22, 2008 at 5:30 AM PDT

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

It's more likely that mandatory water restrictions will come to San Diego County next year. KPBS Environmental Reporter Ed Joyce has details.

Officials say two years of drought combined with restrictions on supply from the state water project to protect an endangered fish may bring mandatory rationing.

Ken Weinberg is Director of Water Resources for the San Diego County Water Authority.

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He says we're now using stored reservoir water - and storage is at 14 year lows throughout the state.

Weinberg says conservation becomes more critical as the water supply dwindles.

Weinberg: That's why it's real important for everybody to be efficient with the water that they do use and conserve. Because if we do go into rationing sometime early next year, we're not going to have a choice.

Weinberg says the authority buys 80-percent of the county's drinking water from the Metropolitan Water District - and much of that comes from the state water project.

Metropolitan holds a forum in San Diego today about the region's water future.

Weinberg says the authority will tell Metropolitan that the best way to ensure a reliable supply is to fix the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

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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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