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REVIEW JOURNAL - LAS VEBAS November 6, 1950 VOL. XLH, NO. 268 Run nit ith Air Base Maps ? Plans for Own Water Supply I The Nellis air force base is. laying plans for the developments Of its own expanded water sys­tem, to take care of the prob­able shortage which will pre- j sent itself by next summer, it j was revealed^'this morning by I Colonel E. S. Chickering, execu- ' tive officer of the base. As a result of the plan, the air ; base will not hook onto the pro- i posed Las Vegas valley water . district system when, as and if it becomes a reality. Colonel Chickering said this ’ morning that the air base of- ficials foresee j an immediate j water shortage when 'the hous- ing project at the base is com­pleted, and rqpgjrted that the peak last summer ’ was 900,000 j gallons per day, and by next j Summer that peak will be raised r to two million gallons. . Water enough to supply that expected peak cannot be provid­ed by the present facilities at the base, Colonel’ Chickering said, find -some means of' augmenting the supply immediately had to i be found. ' As a result of this pr.ediea- * ment, the air base requested a ; Survey team to come here from Washington with the idea of de- Veloping new sources. It was j supposed that, the supply could hot be augmented except by go­ing to Lake Mead. : However, when the survey j team arrived and started work, . It was determined'that the sup­ply could be expanded from un- . derground sources. It was point- ! «d out that,the air base appar- I #ntly iS‘ on a separate aquafoer j *nd that, whereas the Las Vegas ; Water table has receded in the 1 past few years, the air base table j has risen some four feet since • 1945. I ..This, it was pointed out, would | make it feasible to develop the necessary supply from the un- | flerground water sources and ;1 that it would be far cheaper for , the air base to put 'down . wells than it would be to share j in the cost of the Lake Mead , water system. If ; “We must have the water by next summer,” Colonel Chickering ( said. “We have been informed | that it would take between 16 . and 24 months, after the bond ’ Issue is passed before the water . is available. As the bond issue probably will not be ready be­fore next spring, that would tnean no more water would be Available when we will need it the most, and therefore, we will have to develop our own expand­ed service. l “The Las Vegas valley water district is a good thing and will be needed if the Las Vegas area Is to expand:, However, under our present and immediate heeds, it will be necessary for US to get more water before pext summer. Therefore, we will have to get our expansion pro­gram under way immediately,” Chickering said. Under the present plans; the air. base Will start the Work on the expansion' of the water sys­tem immediately. The first pro- (Continued on Page Two) f 2 Las Vegas Review-Journal i Monday, November 6, 1950 ( Airbase (Continued from page one) ject will be to re-work the pre4" sent wells which are supplying the base, and then staiT "drilling new ones. This work probably will start iif the next few" weeks, it was reported. - Meantime, officials of the Las Vegas valley water district said that the air base plans would not affect the program laid out for the development of Lake Mead water for the valley area. Officials of the water district said that the air base project would'cut the cost of the over- a' d if ijs b tl a l| si all program and would reduce E the amount of bond money to be r requested in the election. i The water district has most of £ the preliminary work done on f tire project now, and will be able j to go ahead with plans for the j bond issue within the next few 1 weeks. c t -o