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Lake Water Only Salvation for Valley After '52 Las Vegas has reached the end of the road so far as its present water supply is concerned. The underground reservoir can be count­ed on to serve ONLY today's population with existing conditions of ! usage. Even with rigid economy and ,, elimination of all wastage of wa- j ter, the artesian wells can not I meet the demand beyond 1952 if that long. The only source of additional 1 supply is Lake Mead. The Las Vegas Land & Water , company is. not interested in | making the capital investment necessary to bring in water from : this reservoir. The only agency in a position | to cover the necessary ground is the Las Vegas Valley water | district. : Officials of the Las Vegas | Land and Water company are ; ready and willing to negotiate I the sale of their utility to the j district, if a fair price can be I agreed upon. Immediate action will be nec- ! essary if ANY expansion of Las I Vegas population is expected. | Facilities for bringing water I in from Lake Mead must, at any cost, be ready by 1952, the deadline beyond which the water company officials say they can- j not see their way clear to serve ;; more than the present popu- | lation. | This was the picture presen- J I ted this morning at a meeting I | attended by officials of the water I company, members of the N e - ! | vada public service commission ! I Mayor E. w. Cragin and mem- ! ? bers of the Las Vegas city com- | | mission, Chairman Harry Miller | and directors of the water dis- * 1 i tnct> representatives of the state I l engineer’s office and the Nevada j ! Colorado river commission, i William Reinhardt, vice presl- | [ dent of the water company, laid I i out the facts carefully and ac­curately. He said the community is now ' | drawing more heavily on t h e ! underground water supply than ! it is being replenished, and that j this situation cannot continue in­definitely. “ Use of water in Las Vegas i has gone way beyond our ca- j pacity to supply it,” he de­clared. • Pointing out that elimination 1 (Continued On Page 2) of present wastage might allow for a growth of an additional 25 precent, Reinhardt said that even this was open to question and that the community could figure safely only on continuing u j> serve the present population pom the artesian reservoir. | He said officials of his com-any were convinced the one so-ation is in pumping water from , ' ake Mead and that the utility | pas not interested in making pat investment. ! Chairman Allard of the public brvice commission directed teinhardt’s attention to the im­mediate future and asked what (le company proposes to do to ,void a recurrence of last sum-| per’s critical shortage of water. ! Reinhardt declared that con­traction shortly would be un-ertaken of additional mains in pie affected areas as well as ae business district to equalize ie pressure and assure an even ivision of the water available. “ People in Huntridge, Four­teenth street, and Westside sections will not be any worse off next summer than the rest jof the city,” he promised, “ but this will not answer the iquestion of adequate supply. I “ We can pump just so much rater from the underground res-rvoir,” Reinhardt explained. That amount must be divided jmong all tlje consumers. There [ p simply not enough to take lare of the peak summer de­mand developed this year.” I The answer, he insisted, is rig- 1 enforcement of existing city rdinances forbidding waste of pater or the installation of water leters, now prohibited by law. "If the city will crack down I n the wasters, we can get by' ntil the water ' district takes j jver and brings in additional; upply' from Lake Mead. We an’t go any further and we may s well face it,” Reinhardt said. J Water company officials will] leet with directors of the water i istrict tomorrow morning to [iscuss acquisition of the util-iy as the backbone of the pro- :ram to pump from Lake Mead. Reinhardt assured all present hat the company was ready and filling to cooperate in every fay possible and that he saw no Obstacles in the path of an early onsummation of negotiations. — ---------------o — — ------------ -