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From Where I By A. E. Yesterday, we discussed here the seriousness of the annual Las Vegas water shortage and ; expressed the corn jction that die ^public service commission make ' a thorough and complete investi-igation of the situation and come 'up with the answer. And it was j stated that today’s column would jbe given over to possible solu­tions— those which could be put [into effect in time to assure [ample water NEXT summer. There are two possibilities in the immediate future. Both in­volve the expenditure of ap­proxim ately the same amount of J money—one and one quarter 1 million dollars. Both would al­ls leviate the shortage before an- [ other twelve months have rolled laround. One would mean expan­sion of existing facilities, the J other tapping the Basic Mag­nesium plant supply. First plan would follow that lAl Folger, general manager of ithe Las Vegas Land & Water Company told Public Service Commissioner Chas. V. Williams he had recommended to his :superiors: putting down at least four more wells in the general vicinity of the present produc- ’ tion, and building an additional I reservoir of approximately 12 ' million gallons capacity. This would provide needed ad­ditional source of supply and | give 24 hour storage at peak i summer consumption, 16 million , gallons daily during July and most of August. The cost would ’ be roughly one million dollars, ' perhaps more IF preparation of ; the reservoir site ran into heavy : expense. i There is no question at all as to the ability of the water com­pany to develop whatever supply m ay be needed to serve Las Vegas during the next ten or twenty years. When the wells (cease flowing they can be ,-pumped. BUT—as the water table is lowered year after year, -the company wells will continue [to produce. Hundreds of other wells in the valley, perhaps even those serving the resort hotels would go dry as the company pumps loaded the city system. Cahlan the plant itself. But it could be used as stand-by for the present system AND, when and if the water district is ready-to start tapping the Lake Mead supply, the pipe-line from Basic would already be laid. Sit Officials of the Land & Water Company have repeatedly said they are not interested in bring­ing lake water in to augment present supply. Whether or not their position will change re­mains to be seen. If this is not to be done, then it would appear to be the responsibility of the company to proceed at once with the first plan discussed above. There is a third remedy, of course, but this could not be made effective until the next session of the legislature or until a lengthy court action were taken to test the constitutionality of the present statute prohibiting installation of water meters in cities the size of Reno and Las Vegas. For IF the waste is as great as water company officials profess to believe it is, then it can be curbed only in one w a y - meter each customer. Ever since I came to Las Vegas, Walter R. B r a c k e n, father of the local utility, fought against installation of meters here despite what he felt was wanton waste on the part of a few thoughtless users. He con­tended this was a beautiful oasis here in the midst of a barren desert, and that if users had to pay f o r . water by the gallon lawns would fade, trees would die, gardens would be parched and brown. He always felt wasters were letting him down in his battle, and they were. But they stil! waste and because of that waste people are going without watei for toilets, baths, and all othei household uses for several hours each day. At a fair rate per 1,000 gallons, meters would NOT hurt those who use water sensebly. They would, however, force the selfish, careless, heed­less individuals to pay for the privilege of watching water run down the gutters from their hoses. Will the directors of Las Vegas Land & Water-Company author­ize the expenditure of ONE mil­lion dollars for this purpose in time to prevent a recurrence of this year’s shortage which found a hundred or more families de­prived of water for five or six hours each day? ) Second possibility is imme­diate construction of a 30 inch ipe-line from the Basic Mag-esium plant reservoir to the as Vegas Land & Water Com­pany reservoir. This is estimated to cost about $1-1 [4 million. It would not be for the purpose f providing permanent, steady upply the year ’round, but could ake care, very nicely of the ummer surplus demand and any emergency that might de­velop at any time. Present pipe-line c a p a c i t y from Lake Mead to BMP is not sufficient to provide any assured regular amount of water every day in the year and take care of the anticipated futur I ’m not an advocate of water meters. I ’m merely pointing out they are the ONLY weapon the company, the city or the people as a whole have against waste. Here again, as in so many fields of human experience the lawless few visit woes on the average individual who must bow to regulations that wouldn’t be necessary otherwise-. Here are three possibilities to meet the water crisis. The Pub­lic Service Commission has the jurisdiction to require the ?w’atei company to provide additional storage and additional capacity. It does not have authority to say how this should be done. It -ean suggest, however, and definitely SHOULD. As to meters, the people generally will have to go along with that idea if it is to be adopted. A few more summers like the present and a majority probably would vote that way to force wasters to get in line so ample water.