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[ Sunday, December 2, 1951 '< Sale of Vegas facilities Possible ? ? ? ? * ? it it • ? ? CRC Reports O'Neil Plan Seems Feasible Hope for additional water for the Las Vegas valley from Lake Mead was brightened yesterday when the southern Nevada en gineering committee of the Colo­rado river commission declared that the O’Neil plan, presented here several weeks ago, appear­ed to be entirely feasible. 1 The statement was made by ; Frank Strong, CRC member, who returned yesterday from a con­ference in Los Angeles w i t h Ralph O’Neil, father of the pre­sent plan to relieve the water shortage in the valley. The ques­tion of cost still remains to be determined^ and it is probable, the engineering committee says, the cost will not be any higher than the original plan presented to tap the pipe line at Henderson. O’Neil, at the conference, pre­sented data to Strong which con­clusively established the feasibil­ity of increasing the capacity of the Basic pipeline to 51,000,000 gallons per day as far as the Manganese Ores property. The Basic plant lessees have agreed, if this is done, to con­tract the district to deliver 7 ,- 300.000. 000 gallons per year (fi­gured on the basis of 2 0 ,000,000 | gallons per day) for a period of ten years with a minimum guar­antee of 3,(350,000,000 gallons per year (figured on the basis of 10.0 00. 000 gallons per day) for thirty years. Under this plan, the district would tap the line at Manganese Ores with a pipeline .along the eastern edge of the vallejy to . ^Continued on Page j j. east C h a r l e s ton Boulevard, there to connect with the local water system. Directors of the water district have tentatively accepted this program and are prepared to proceed at once If the cost prov­es satisfactory. Strong said he expected these figures would be ready for the next meeting of t h e Colorado River Commission on Decem­ber 17, and indications were that if they are within the bounds of the district’s program, the way can be cleared at that tim e for the entire plan to be put into effect as rapidly as the nec­essary steps can be taken. May Shasta Power Come to Aid ofVegas Possibility that power f r o m Shasta dam. in northern Cali­fornia might be made available, to help solve the pressing pow­er problem in southern Nevada, is being explored by the Ne­vada Colorado river commission, Governor Charles H. Russell revealed this morning. Following a breakfast meet­ing with members of the com­mission’s southern Nevada com­mittee, the governor said A. J. Shaver, electrical -engineer for the group, had been instructed to investigate the Shasta power situation with a view to the state’s making application for whatever may be available. Nevada would have top pri­ority for all power now under contract to private utilities, and might conceivably pick up as much as 90,000 kilowatts in cap­acity or some 600,000,000 kilo­watt hours per year. Delivery could be m a d e through an interchange agree­ment with Pacific ? Gas & Elec­tric and Southern California Edi­son companies, whose facilities interlock throughout much, of central California, the governor pointed out. The commission, he said, has discussed the possibility of tak­ing- delivery of this power, if available, near Reno and build­ing a transmission line from there to southern Nevada pick­ing up various communities en route, including the new Ana­conda Copper company’s devel­opment at Yerington. Present contracts for Shasta power have some four years to run, it is understood. ? ? ? * City, District To Decide Who Will Buy System Just who will purchase the fa­cilities of the Las Vegas Land and Water company—the city of Las Vegas or the Las Vegas val­ley water-district, is the ques­tion officials of both groups hope to settle when commissioners and district directors meet next Monday or Tuesday. Announcement that the facil­ities are up for possible sale came last night via attorney Cal­vin Cory, who relayed the feel­ings of Union Pacific and water company officials in the matter to a water committee of seven representing the city, Chamber of Commerce, Water District and Builders Exchange. Cory told the group last night that U.P General Solicitor E. E. Behnett and water company Managing D i r e c t o r William Reinhardt would be willing to come to Las Vegas to enter sale negotiations if they were con­vinced that a workable agree­ment could be attained. . eq pinoM joasu j saqjop | q q ) h a U M o u q p e t f I J I „ I n r m A r . ’PPnf Q — Q , Water District President Tom Campbell, who indicated his or­ganization has in the past dis­cussed the possibility of purchase with the water company, h a s priced the company facilities at $1.5 million. Queried after last night’s meeting as to whether he thought the city or the water district should buy out and operate wa­ter company facilities, Mayor C. D. Baker said only that he was interested in converting the wa­ter company into a publicly-own­ed utility as soon as possible. “I’m interested primarily in expediting this transfer as quick­ly. as possible,” said Mayor Baker. Last night’s meeting at t h e chamber of commerce office was attended also by Public Service Commission Chairman Robert; Allen.' Allen, whose Thursday n i g h t phone poll brought recision of the PSC interim order banning extension of water facilities to new installations put under con­struction after December 1, [once again urged parties con­cerned with the Vegas water question to press hard for con- (Continued on Page 2 )