upr000229 41

Los Angeles, November 6th, 1944 7334 Mr. W. M, Jeffers: At the invitation of President Keleh of the Lae Vegas Chamber of Commerce, Messrs. Bennett, Strong, Denton and myself attended meeting held in Las Vegas on Friday, November 3rd, to discuss the water situation in the Las Vegas Valley. Messrs. MoNamee, Bracken and Folger from Las Vegas were present* State Engineer Smith and Assistant State Engineer Shamberger of Nevada, as well as County and City officials and directors of the Chamber of Commerce attended, a total of about one hundred persons being there. Mr. Strong made the principal statement for the Las Vegas Land and Water Company; copy of his report enclosed herewith.' Messrs. Smith and Shamberger made very good report on behalf of the State, in which they went into all of the technicalities of the situation and called attention to the fact the present artesian water supply is being reduced and unless immediate and drastic conservation steps were taken there were probabilities that eventually the existing wells would be unable to meet the demands. The meeting lasted almost four hours, many questions were asked and I think all those in attendance have a better conception of the water situation and the fact some definite conservation measures are going to be necessary if the source of supply is to be protected; Mr. Smith brought this out very forolbly, calling