Groundwater Could Boost San Diego's Water Supply

By Ed Joyce / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published February 4, 2008 at 1:39 PM PST

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey are looking for water under Balboa Park. Local officials hope to tap the groundwater to increase local supplies. KPBS Reporter Ed Joyce has details.

Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey are looking for water under Balboa Park. Local officials hope to tap the groundwater to increase local supplies. KPBS Reporter Ed Joyce has details.

The work is part an overall study to see how much underground water is in the San Diego area. Wes Danskin is the USGS scientist in charge of the project. He says the test wells will determine whether there's enough underground water to make a difference.

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Danskin says scientists have already discovered something they didn't expect.

Danskin : We identified an aquifer at about 1,000 feet that we didn't understand previously was there. We didn't know it was there, about 600 feet thick. Very promising from our standpoint compared to the knowledge that we had before.

He says a hole was drilled nearly a quarter of a mile below the land surface. Danskin says samples taken from the hole indicate the earth and water from that depth is several million years old.

He says it will take several months to determine whether there's enough water to justify the cost of bringing it out for local use. He says eight wells will be drilled this year in different parts of the county.

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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