upr000271 190

IS : f i V egas Supply Reported To Be the Lowest In C ity History The water supply in Las Vegas is the lowest in history. Reser­voirs are empty. Sewers are running full of waste water. In: case of a serious fire, no water would be available to fight it.. These Startling facts, presented by A. JVI. Folger of the Las Vegas Land and Water company to the city board last' night led to the passage of a stringent emergency ordinance to prohibit, the waste of .water in the city of Las Vegas. * -The npw ordinance,-which will.] become effective' after- next Tues?r| day, prohibits waste , of water’,! thru leaking taps and-other Out­lets? and specifically provides for the use of cooling systems, which are blamed for the depletion of tiro local supply of water. ’ S ' T h e; section referring to the cooling .systems prohibits “Using water from any water system be- ?, longing to any public utility for j the purpose of cooling and refrig- ' era tor, refrigerating machine, ice plant, ice machine, cooler, cooling plant, cooling system, air: condi­tioning machine or^ppa.ritus, efi» gine or mcjtor, whhre skid water,. - after4 being so tiMA, is/ permitted' server lf|| cesspool hr onto the ground, provided, however, that the use of water ; for such cooling purposes is not prohibited where, after being sci j used, it is collected, re-cooled, and i re-used, and is not permitted to • flow into a sewer, cesspool, or j onto the ground.” .. | Violations of the. ordinance i constitute a misdemeanor and i are punishable by a fine of not I to exceed $50 or by imprison­ment in the city jail not to exceed 25 days, or both fine and impfis-1 onment. The full provisions of 1 the ordinance are printed else­where in the Review-Journal to­day. if Folger, appearing before the board last night said, “We are checking the level of the water in the reservoir every day and | find that the water is running i thru the tank, but no water is being stored.” ft He stated today that the flow i of the wells is up to normal, with i Hve and one-half million gallons being produced by the wells and springs at the plant, and that an additional one million gallons is (Continued on Page Six; ? A o ™ T i r • <SB '/iC7 / m H/ Water Short (Continued frmo Page' One) being supplied thru an emergen­cy; pump at the railroad yards. -“AH this water is being used j 'or wasted. We have not had a ; full reservoir since the fire at the ' WPA camp on Westside last month, and the storage? is drop­ping off until we have nothing in t reserve. jtgF' f|§ " " v “If there were a serious fire,: • -Ihg...Jirs. department -jvQuid, he | faced with-*a*bad situation. Pres­sure on. the lines would be too low to provide' adequate protec­tion: “There is a criminal waste of water. The sewer lines are run­ning full and are causing a bad Situation at the city : disposal plant. The state sanitai'y engin­eer inspected the city plant re-] cently and found that the large ampunt. of water funning th ru ' the sewer lines had rendered the septic tank worthless. If this contin.ueSjJthe' city w ilt Jjfe forced to build another septic tank. “The town has been’' growing rapidly. Two years agd the wa­ter company developed a new T, well to provide adequate supply, but we did not anticipate the use of water coolers. I understand the same trouble is being exper­ienced by other towns. ? It is the same as though each house had two lawns instead of one. ' . “The water produced here is estimated .to be enough to sup­ply a town with a 30,000 popula-" lion. There is an abnormal use of water in Las Vegas in, the sum- Wier season. The use here is an average of 650 gallons per person j per day. The national average I is only 150 gallpns per person.” , - Fcilger stated that. the water. company, plans to send out an i n- ; spcctor to check on the waste of | water, and with a stringent or­dinance .such as ..the-b n e ’-passed by tho board last night, it is be­lieved | that the situation can be remedied and a:' serious situa­tion averted. Folger stated that he -was of the opinion that the water com­p l y ' is- getting 80 per cent co­operation of the* residents and added, jj “It is the 1 other 201per cent who hoed an ordinance' to force them to conserve water.” He pointed out that in case of a water shortage, not only, the “water .wasters” but the “water savers” as well would suffer.: City Commissioner J-ferb Kausc, at the aboard meeting .lgst nighf showed -serious .concern over the water 11 situation, § stressing . the heed, for ? conservation, particul­arly in case Of a bad .fire. i i Si -—-H).? fill1 S i i !