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Las Vegas Review Journal—July 8, 1951 Drain on Tanks Beating Supply With Las Vegas residents using water at a record rate during the past two weeks, officials of the Las Vegas Land and Water company today were beginning to wonder if the supply available from the underground sources would withstand the-drain which i$ expected during the latter part of July and the month of .August. “ At the moment,” the officials i - - — —- - ' ---------------------- said, we are draining the re-k and 9, it fell back to 970,000 servoir during most of, the day ballons- However, between 9 and faster than we can supply it, i f the consumption rose to the and if that procedure continues, million gallons per hour, which we may have a tough time main- (meant that the drain on the re­taining the supply.” jservoir was greater than the William Johnson, manager of (amount put into it.” the Las Vegas Land and Water Johnson said that from 5 o’- company, reported today that the ic]0c^ jj- t^e evening until 10 at use of water .during the month ,ni„ ht «the residents are taking of June and the first ^week in " July had jumped 25 'per cent above the average use for the same period last year. “ It seems that the more war ter we supply, the more is. us­ed and there is a distinct pos-- sihility that there will not be enough to go around when the late July and August hot spells arrive.” Johnson pointed dut that the average consumption during the year 1950 was approximately 10,- 000,000 gallons per day. During the first few days in July, 1951,, that average jumped to 18,000,- 000 gallons per day, , “ Just as ail instance,” John­son said, “ Friday night, between 6 and 7 o’clock, the consump­tion was 940,000 gallons per (hour. Between 7 and 8 that consump­tion leaped to more than a mil­lion gallons, and then, between out more water than we are able to put back in. As a result, we don’t have too much time to bring the storage back up ito (normal,” Johnson called attention to the fact that the Land and Water company had develop­ed a source of some three and a half million gallons of water per day more than was avail­able during 1950, and still the summer consumption was greater than the capacity. Residents in the western sec­tion of the city have reported that the wells which they have on their property are developing only about one-third of the nor­mal capacity, so water experts point out that the Land and Wat­er company is not the only unit facing shortages. Johnson said last night the pressure in the West Charleston area and the Fourth and Stewart section fell by 25 per cent and it. was .necessary to correct the situation as soon as it was re­ported. The company official said that he is convinced* that 95 per cent of the residents are conserving water as much as possible, but that 5 per cent is paying no attention to the possible water shortage i and is making it tough on the rest of the community. Water experts here pointed out that Charleston mountain area situation is “ really disturbing,” because, they said, if the moun­tain springs are drying up, as reported by the forest service, then the Las Vegas area can expect increasing shortages in the months to come. Speed Water District Deal Governor Charles, H. Russell will be asked ,-to make a per- | sonal appeal to Jess Larson, gen­eral services administration head in Washington, in an effort : to get the interim contract for tne Las Vegas valley water dis­trict cleared and signed, it4 was reported from Carson City Sat- | urday morning. The water district has been attempting to get the contract- ! out of the hands of John Mueller, local GSA representative, and into the Washington office for signature for the past several weeks, it was reported, and have met with no success whatever. A meeting with Mueller, the southern Nevada division of the Colorado river commission and the water district officials for Tuesday, at which time the (water district officials will de-jrnand to know why so much de­lay has tahgled up the progress of the contract. Mueller contends that some changes are necessary in the iproposed contract, but water dis­trict officials say they have (agreed informally to the changes land tnefe is no reason for Muell­er’s delaying tactics. I