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mil mrinTir*1’ " O ctober 25, 1945 Mr. E. E. Bennett: c c : (Frank S trong) (W alter H| Bracken) This r e f e r s t o your l e t t e r o f O ctober 13, 1945, your f i l e 1 7 4 -2 , in which you r e f e r to Mr. Bracken’ s l e t t e r t o Mr. S tron g o f O ctober 11th and Mr. S tron g ’ s l e t t e r t o Mr. Bracken o f O ctober 1 2th , and a ls o r e f e r s to Mr. B racken’ s l e t t e r to Mr. S tron g o f O ctober 17th and th e r e p ly th e r e to dated O ctober 1 8 th , 1945. on w ater m eeting h e ld under th e a u sp ice s o f th e Las Vegas Chamber o f Commerce at th e H otel El Rancho-Vegas on Bovember 3 , 1944, th e o n ly r e fe r e n c e t o a w ater con ­s e r v a tio n com m ittee o r d i s t r i c t was th a t con ta in ed in a l e t t e r w r itte n t o Las Vegas Land & W ater Company in December, 1939, from th e S ta te E ngineer o f the S ta te o f Nevada, and from which I read an ex cerp t in my t a lk t o th e g a th e rin g .' P art o f sa id excerp t so read by me is as f o llo w s : ” C on trol o f in d is c r im in a te d r i l l i n g o f th e area i s another and even more s e r io u s m a tter. Perm its to d r i l l w e lls a l l over th e a r te s ia n ba sin are s t e a d ily coming in t o my o f f i c e . These perm its f o llo w th e usual co u rse under the law and are a d v e r tis e d and i f p r o t e s t i s f a i l e d to be made by o th er p ersons u sin g w ater in th e b a s in , the a p p lic a tio n s f o r perm its are approved, in my o p in io n i t i s high tim e th at such w h o le sa le d r i l l i n g , which w i l l undoubtedly r e s u lt in a lo w e rin g o f th e hydro­s t a t i c p ressu re o v e r th e whole areas v ery soon , should be lim it e d . The agency to b rin g t h is a b o u t, how ever, must be the p e o p le l i v i n g w ith in th e b a sin o r u sin g the w ater t h e r e . We have ad vocated the fo rm a tio n o f a w ater con­s e r v a tio n d i s t r i c t under th e p r o v is io n s o f our new under­ground w ater law but so fa r th e p e o p le o f Las Vegas have taken no d e f in it e ste p s in th at d i r e c t i o n . Such a body, once form ed, can through i t s o f f i c e r s examine each a p p li­c a t io n f o r a new perm it t o d r i l l an a r te s ia n w e ll and e n ter a p r o t e s t on b e h a lf o f the d i s t r i c t . As i t i s , p r a c t i c a l l y anyone can d r i l l a w e ll and dry out the under­ground b a s in . In th e end t h is p o lic y w i l l cause th e en­t i r e b a sin to lo s e w ater and your own company may be one o f th e h e a v ie s t l o s e r s . ” A fte r readin g th a t 1 went on to s t a t e ” In resp on se to th a t th e Las Vegas Land & w ater Com­pany, to g e th e r w ith th e County Com m issioners, and 1 b e lie v e th e C ity o f Las Vegas, sign ed the n e ce ssa ry c e r t i f i c a t e and f i l e d i t w ith th e S ta te E n gin eer’ s O ffic e so as t o In g o in g ov er th e t r a n s c r ip t o f the p ro ce e d in g s