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VegSs W ater Crisis Looms Conservation Urged by Firm At Local Parley j By MATTIE GIASSON The present water supply jin Las Vegas is sufficient ! fox* the needs of a com­munity with a population of 1 25,000 persons; the pressure and flow of wells is gradually be-ing reduced; conservation pi-o- i gram started in the past year has j resulted in the saving of from two to three million gallons daily, and a possibility exists that we are facing a critical shortage of water. These were points brought out at a meeting yesterday of Union Pacific railroad representatives, state, county and city officials, and interested water users in this area. The gathering was called by the Las Vegas chamber of com­merce, and Maxwell Kelch, pres­ident, presided. Representatives of the railroad! and water company were W. H. Guild, executive assistant to the president; E. E. Bennett, general I solicitor; Frank Strong, manager | of industrial development; George, Fish, superintendent; Bob Den-ton, western managerj Walter Bracken, vice president of thei Las Vegas Land and Water com­pany ; A1 Folger, general manager : of the water company, and Leo j McNamee, Union Pacific attorney I for Nevada. Alfred Merritt Smith, state en­gineer, and his assistant, Hugh Shamburger, spoke for the state of Nevada. Kelch, reviewing the purposes I I of the meeting, explained that an ] adequate supply of Water is abso- 1 I lutely fundamental for the de- !, ] velopment of the community. He, j I called upon Frank Strong of the j j Union Pacific railroad to present ,'j that_ company’s stand with regard j to proposed development, if any, i j of the existing water supply. I Strong replied that surveys ?; 1 strongly indicate a limited source i | of underground water supply, and ! I that if water were piped in from | Boulder reservoir it would be ? (Please turn to page 4) * I (Continued from Page I) heavily mineralized and of inferior I quality for all-around use to the present water supply. In view of the difficulty of arriving at an accurate appraisal of artesian re­sources and the tim£ required in the study, he stated: “ The problem we are all con­fronted with is the_ conservation and protection of your domestic and industrial water supply. For jyour own best interest every ef- ! fort should be made to bring about enactment and enforcement of j ordinances and statutes to stop waste of water to protect the I future of the area.” (Editor’s note: More about Las fVegas water tomorrow.)