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Las Vegas Review Jo u rn a l-August 15, 1951 Squaring off for a finish L fight in their long struggle i to obtain approval of a plan to bring Lake Mead water , into the Las Vegas area, the board of directors ' >of the Las Vegas valley 1 water district t o d a y de­manded answers to several | pertinent questions^' Disappointed at the’-iafest: re­buff to their program and the prospeet of still further delay, the directors nonetheless pledg­e d to the water consumers of I [ this area an even more deter-! ) mined campaign than before to) ; bring the issue to a successful , (conclusion w h i l e offering the suggestion that a full-time rep­resentative of general services; | administration be handed the ! negotiations in order to expe-; dite progress. The district directors called ; upon the plant lessees to “ im- ! mediately formulate and come forward with a counter-proposal which will be acceptable to all parties” and also' suggested that now is the time for Governor Charles H. Russell to make a definite statement of policy so far as the state of Nevada and the Colorado river, commission are concerned. Predicting that failure to im­plement the present water sup­ply in Las Vegas will cause the entire area to “ revert to bar­ren desert,” the directors call­ed for prompt action by- all par­ties to solve the “ vital and pressing1.’ problem. The statement of the directors today followed the rejection by the Basic lessees of the propos­ed sale of the water facilities to the district. This was pre­sented to the directors in a state­ment issued late yesterday by the Colorado . riVer ' commission setting forth the lessees position. The complete statements of each group follow in full: The available members of the Las Vegas valley water district have authorized and approved the issuance of the following j statement, commenting on t h e ' decision reached at. a meeting held by the lessees of the Basic ; plant Tuesday, August 14, 1951, | which resulted in the rejection by the lessees of the contract which had been previously tent­atively approved by all parties, j including the . general services (administration. The district will continue, with i unremitting efforts, to carry out the objectives mandated” by the public in October, 1947, by one of the largest majorities ever re­corded .in Clark county’s-history. The district intends, tp ; deliver water to the valley in accordance with this public mandate The interruption that has oc­curred could have been and should have been avoided, had all parties co-ordinated their ef­forts in the public interest. The statement of the lessees, issued through-the CRC, plainly places the burden on the lessees to immediately formulate a n d come forward with a counter­proposal acceptable to all par­ities. Until this proposal is made, jthe district accepts in good faith jthe quoted statements of t h e (lessees that they Will promptly ;make known to all parties the basis upon which they will ap­prove the water agreement. Such plan, of course, must be feasible and acceptable to the le­gal staff of the district jjnd the bond-buying public. The pro-pbsal must be in such a form that it will provide a self-liqui­dating project, that will n e v e r become a tax burden to the pub­lic. The district feels that it is en­titled to the answers to the fol­lowing questions: 1. Who is currently in charge of the general services adminis­tration? Now that Colonel Jess Larson, former administrator of GSA, has, been appointed to a new governmental position, to whom must the CRC and the dis­trict look for its answers, upon which t h e future ^development and fate of the Las Vegas Val­ley depends? . 2. Why qannot I the general | services administration imme­diately dispatch' to Las V e g a s I qualified and authorized ful}- j time representatives, with full authority to consummate t h i s ! I matter locally, where the voice i of the public may be heard more I distinctly than in Washington? ' 3. Has not the time come for Governor Russell, who is also ! chairman of CRC, to make a I definite statement and make it i known to the general services administration and the public? 4. What has occurred to so completely change the initial un­derstanding' that the general | servicds administration would | transfer ;Bg.sic Magnesium wat- I er facilities to the District at SI, I allowing appropriate credit to lithe CRC for this concession? : What has held up this transfer, which our senior senator said last week in a letter to the cham- ! ber of commerce should have ; been consummated long ago? ! The District feels very strong­ly that basically there is no rea­son why this project cannot be satisfactorily | consummated. There is ample water avail- ! able through the Henderson fa­cilities for air concerned, les­sees, townsite, and the District. The details' can and should be easily worked out to a satisfac­tory conclusion by any group of r e.a s o n a ble and fair-minded business men. This conclusion is an absolute necessity for the future, of the Las Vegas area: All qualified ) authorities concur that the Las > Vegas area will revert to barren desert if the water supply is not 1 implemented. At the meeting today between the Basic 1)lant lesses and the Southern Nevada committee of the Colorado river commission, the proposed contract for deliv- ? ery of "water to the plant Les- i sees and to the district wa's gone j over in detail, in accordance with 1 the instructions from Jess Lar­son of general, services admin­istration that any such contract must have the approval of the major lessees. This contract, envisions the ac­quisition of the facility by the water district.. The Lessees stated that they could’ not agree with the terms of the contract because: 1. .That the contract for the delivery of water does not give the plant lessees adequate pro­tection for future development. 2. That the acquisition of the facility by the district for $.500,- ! 000 might place an additional obligation of $1,000,000 to be re­tired by the lessees under the letter of Patent and the Larson ietter. The Lessees will agree to a plan whereby the water district will be permitted to obtain a maximum of 10,000,000 gallons of water per day from the water facility for new use, provided the district agrees to an equit­able arrangement for the dis­tribution of maintenance costs throughout the year. Because this was the first time , the matter had been presented to j the lessees for consideration, and because of the fact that terms must of necessity be taken up (with the home office of each company, they were unable to offer a solution at this time, and asked that additional time be ! granted to consider the problem further, assuring the commission I« :'J7 ' t, ^ jbh5==== ,... . (that every effort would be made to expedite the matter. The lessees were advised that ?the commission and the water district directors expect to meet at the earliest possible date in Washington with general servic­es representatives to carry on negotiations concerning the wat- I er facility and other matters con­nected with the plant.