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Y j^ Las V e g a n Re v i e w -JcrtCfflSl-^ugust 2 4 , 1 9 5 1 District Watches Russell-Larson Water Confab Officials of the Las V e­gas Valley water district adopted an a 1 1 i t u d e of w a t c h f u l waiting this m o r n i n g as Governor Charles H. Russell, Colo­rado R i v e r Commission Attorney Alan Bible a n d BMI Plant Manager Julian ; Moore were all en route 1 to Washington for a con­ference with Jess Larson, director of General Ser­vices Administration. Spencer Butterfield, acting head of the water district board, said he was “ astounded” at the news the meeting had been ar-.! ranged in Washington without the water district being notified and afforded an opportunity to be present but that the board w ouid withhold, any comment until the results were made known. Russell’s decision to head fort the capital c^me after Larson j h a d indicated i n, a letter;that there was no reason for tlie| Washington meeting since hi s * representative John V. "Mueller; had full authority to negotiate! all matters in connection with, the plant, and was planning to: be in Las Vegas for that pur­pose this week-end. This cancelled out plans for the joint meeting with the com­mission, water district and Lar­son in Washington to discuss pro­posed transfer of the Basic pipe­line and pumping facilities to the district which had been agreed to previously by all; par­ties Concerned. The governor insisted that he be accorded an audience with Larson as chief executive of the state and this was arranged for Saturday in the office of Senator Pat McCarran. Russell requested Bible and Moore to be present, and both flew back. . The Nevada governor said he felt the continuing negotiations had reached'the stage where “ a face to face conference w i t h Mr. Larson is urgently, neces­sary.” He said he was hopeful the Washington conference would I result in a “ mutual understand-jing” between the Nevada offi­c ia ls and Larson as to the path ?|to be followed-,in restoring the : BMI property to the state’s tax (rolls. . The Nevada commission has [prepared two tentative plans for disposing of the BMI facilities to private industry. One calls j for- sale of the property as a single unit and the second pro­v id e s for its disposal on a parcel , basis. ;. I Any such solution, Russell (emphasized, “ must be fair to the BMI lessees, the people of Clark county and to the state of Nevada.” He explained he expected to t a k e up the question of the transfer of the BMI water sys­tem to the Las Vegas Valley Water district. ' The Nevada commission has offered three proposals to date for GSA approval by which the ttater system could be turned over to the water district or by which the latter could receive at leas 10,000,000 gallons oi Lake Meade water daily. So far, each proposal has been rejected by GSA or by the BMI lessees.