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STATE OF NEVADA fiY OFFICE OP STATE ENGINEER Carson,City 0 December 20th, 1939 Mr. Walter R. Bracken, Vice-President and Agent, Las Vegas Land ..And Water Co., Las Vegas, Nevada^ Dear Walter: I have been a very long time replying to your letter of November 17th, for which I beg to apologise. The reason for the delay has been an operation followed by illness which has kept me laid up for two months. I am now rapidly on the way to recovery and hope to be able to resume all of my work in about a week, I am glad to know that you have been making an independent study of the underground ttfayer situation in the Las Vegas area and that in general the findings of your engineer probably coincide with the information we have obtained through the examinations made by Mr, Penn Livingston for the United States Geological Survey, Livingston*s report indicated that there was comparatively little underground loss of water from leakage from artesian wells through pervious underground strata, and that the major portion of the present leakage was at the surface from uncontrolled wells. Undoubtedly most of this leakage can be stopped and if the public is gradually beginning to be aware of such a necessity the control of these leaks will soon be brought about. Control of indiscriminate drilling of the area is another and even more serious matter. Permits to drill welle all over the artesian basin are steadily coming into my office. These permits follow the usual course under the law and are advertised, and if protests fail to be made by other persons using water in the basin the applications for permits are approved. In my opinion it is high time that such wholesale drilling, which will undoubtedly re­sult in a lowering of the hydrostatic pressure over the whole area very soon, should be limited. The agency to bring this about, however, must be the people living within the basin or using the water there. We have advocated the formation of a water conserva­tion district under the provisions of our new underground water law, but so far the people of Las Vegas have taken no definite steps in that direction. Such a body, once formed, can through its officers examine each application for a new permit to drill an artesian well and enter a protest on behalf of the district. As it is, practi­cally anyone can drill a well and draw on the underground basin. In the end this policy will cause the entire basin to lose water, and your own company may be one o* *he heaviest losers.