Politics

San Diego Wants Seal Pool Ruling Tossed Out

By Ed Joyce / Reporter

Published July 21, 2009 at 11:28 AM PDT

This story was published more than 15 years ago.

The city of San Diego plans to ask a judge to vacate an order giving the city 72 hours to scare harbor seals away from the Children's Pool in La Jolla. It's the latest move in a decade-long battle over the use of the pool.

San Diego City Attorney Jan Goldsmith says he'll ask Judge Yuri Hofmann to lift the order requiring the city to scare away the seals at the Children's Pool.

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Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a state bill giving the city the power to decide whether the seals should stay or go.

The city had planned to scare the seals off with the recorded sounds of barking dogs, which could still happen if the judge turns down Goldsmith's request.

Goldsmith says he'll appeal if the judge refuses.

"We will also, as I told the city council and the mayor this morning, we will take all legal means to return the decision-making on this back to the city council and end all this expensive and nonsensical litigation," Goldsmith says.

Goldsmith also wants a 2005 ruling dismissed that requires the city to dredge the pool and replace the contaminated sand.

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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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