upr000288 41

Los Angeles - Aug. g, 1950 -ecr; ^ - Il I Mr. Wm. Reinhardt: Coe: Mr. T.W. Bookes - Omaha Mr. W.H. Hulslzer - " ) Pursuant to your request, I attended a hearing before the City Commissioners of the City of Las Vegas, Monday, July 31st, to consider the water problems of the City of Las Vegas, Mr. Folger, Mr. Blonde and Mr. Adamson were also present. At the request of the City Commissioners, Mr. Charles Williams, Public Service Commissioner of the State of Nevada, was also present. Two of the City Commissioners were quite critical o f the Water Company for its alleged failure to take necessary steps to secure more water for the City of Las Vegas. They stated that several wells had been drilled in the territory surrounding Las Vegas, all of which had produced water, and laid particular emphasis upon the "Searles Well", which, they stated had been offered to the Water Company and which the Company refused to buy. They also stated that since these other new-wells were producing water, there was no reason to suppose that any new wells drilled by the Water Company would not Increase the supply of water for the City of Las Vegas. X drew their attention to the faot that the State Engineers, as well as the engineers of the Water B1strict, had determined that the water level In the Las Vegas Valley water basin was lowering rapidly and that In the opinion of , these engineers the building of new wells would not produce any Increase in the water supply but would tend to reduce the capacity of the existing wells. Jt also drew their atten­tion to the fact that the City had passed an ordinance re­stricting the time within which sprinkling might be carried on In this city, the result of which was that in a thirty-day period the consumption had decreased by some 50,000,000 gallons and that the City itself had recently decided to withhold enforcement of that ordinance.