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In 1939, through the foresigh t and instrumentality of the State Engineers O ffice, they had passed by the legislature a law whioh is called the Nevada Under** ground Water Law, and i t is prin cipally a law pertaining to the conservation of underground water, Mr, Shamberger has read you one portion of that law. In December, 1939, particularly a fter this law became e ffe c tiv e , at the request of the o ffic ia ls of the Las Vegas Land & Water Company, we received a le tte r from the State Engineers O ffice, which I would Like to read an excerpt from* "I am glad to know that you have been making an independent study of the underground water situation in the Las Vegas area,and that in general the findings of your engineer probably coincide with the information we have obtained through the examinations made by Mr, Penn Livingston fo r the United States Geological Survey, ’’Livingston's report indicated that there was comparatively l i t t l e underground loss of water from leakage from artesian wells through pervious underground strata, and that the major portion of the present leakage was at the surface from uncontrolled w ells. Undoubtedly most of this leakage can be stopped,and i f the public is gradually beginning to be aware of suoh a necessity,the control of these leaks w ill soon be brought about, ’’Control of indiscriminate d rillin g of the area is another and even more serious matter. Permits to d r ill wells a ll over the artesian basin are steadily coming into my o ffic e . These permits follow the usual course under the law and are advertised, and i f protests f a i l to be made by other persons using water in the basin,the applications fo r permits are approved. In my opinion, i t is high time that such wholesale d rillin g , which w ill undoubtedly result in a lowering of the hydrostatic pressure over the whole area very soon, should be lim ited. The agency to bring this about, however, must be the people livin g within the basin or using ths water there. We have advocated the formation of a water con­servation d is tr ic t under the provisions of our new underground water law, but so fa r the people of Las Vegas have taken no d efin ite steps in that d irection . Such a body, once formed, can through its o ffice rs examine each application fo r a new permit to d r il l an artesian w ell and enter a protest on behalf of the d is t r ic t . As i t i s , p ra ctica lly anyone can d r ill a w ell and draw on the underground basin. In the end this policy w ill cause the entire basin to lose water, and your own oompany may be one of the heaviest losers, "Our studies have indicated there is no immediate and violent cause fo r alarm and that i t may be some time before the hydrostatic pressure would be lowered enough to seriously jeopardize existing flow s, but in my opinion i t is certainly high time that the people of Las Vegas take steps to organize a water conservation d is tr ic t without further delay,” In response to that, the Las Vegas Land & Water Company and I, together with the County Commissioners, and I b elieve, the City of Las Vegas, signed the necessary c e rtifica te and file d i t with the State Engineers O ffice, so as to bring this area within the provisions of the Underground Conservation Law, One provision of that law is* ’’Section 10, - The state engineer shall administer this act and shall prescribe a ll necessary rules and regulations within the terms of this act fo r suoh administration. The state engineer may require periodical state­ments of water elevations, water used and acreage on which water was used (13)