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THE DENVER POST '.H. .E".,.,.....''':.''1...8' 'EJI"'....'. ; 'I,> , ,'. ,;~'~IIIi,Wj~!t~;t,. <;~'::~, ,L, ',", ,':slJ.: ,:t Las Vegas puts its chips on continued pro-growth spin, but many hedge bets " iSuw4ay. September 18, 1994 , , .. ~EGAS from Page 1A Since 1991, competing area wa- ter agencies bave reorganized into 6ne powerful, cooperative entity in southern Nevada. It has bought or ~argained for enough water to cover all bets and keep Las Vegas in the boom business for a few more years. The Clark County planning de. partment's mission statement calls for economic stimulation first, conservation of scarce re- '8ourceslast. "The cult_ure here has always been very pro-growth," Schlegel :said. "There's no economic base here, other than the gaming," Southern Nevada has a relative- !y small tax base. Gambling pays the freight for many public ser- . Vices, although voters recently have been hit with tax requests to finance schools and roads. One or two Las Vegas officials have suggested carefully that JP,ore controlled growth might be ,!orth at least starting to think about. But, Schlegel admits, "No- body really wants to own up to it." "They're afraid to voice that idea publicly because of the panic -ili would cause. The development community would go berserk. The banking community, which would have a lot invested in all these real estate projects, would have heart- burn on these kinds of statements coming from public officials." , Meantime, roads and schools are getting jammed by the influx. "Clark County Commissioner P","] Christensen was one official who suggested, during a minor re. cession in 1991, that residents were getting fed up with the nega- tive side effects of the boom. He urged planners to draft a policy of irloderate and controlled growth. 'Today, Christensen calls that "unrealistic, . . . You can live wherever you want in this country. If you were able to stop growth, y.ou would kill the community," So pressure is on for Las Vegas to get more water in ways that are controversial in the arid West. Area water officials filed for permission to pump and pipe wa- ter from northern counties in Ne- vada. That bid still is being pon- dered by state authorities. And then there's the Colorado River, which backs up behind the Hoover Dam southeast of Las Ve- gas to form Lake Mead. Its huge volume might as well be a mirage lQ the locals, because the Colorado River compact only allots 300,000 acre-feet of water to Nevada, That's about one-fifth as much as evaporates off the river yearly in its roll to the sea. Colorado, by comparison, gets 3.8 million acre-feet, much of which is unassigned to use within the state. Colorado officials are fighting attempts to create a mar- ket for sale of water up and down t~e river, saying that, in effect, Would break down the compact that protects Colorado's right to use the water in the future. ~'-Las Vegas was a' tiny railroad slop in 1922, when the Colorado River compact was signed. Though its name is Spanish for "the mead: ows," a reference to a marshy ar- ea where a water table emptied in- to the Colorado, most of Nevada was unlikely to sustain the agricul- ture that dominated state econo- mies when the pact was signed. That led to its annual allocation of 300,000 acre-feet. Today, great- er Las Vegas is growing at a rate of 6,000 residents a month, Many states in the compact are experiencing population growth, California has exceeded its com- pact share for years. The Phoenix area exploded as a corporate and retirement center in the '60s and continues to grow. Salt Lake City apartment vacancy rates are fall- ing, And some 43,000 refugees from California's rocky economy and natural disasters have jam- med streets and schools in Colora- do in the past year. Patricia Mulroy's job is to get water for southern Nevada. As general manager of the Las Vegas Valley Water District and of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, she has made some waves. She op- poses linking water availability with a growth policy. "To cut off your water supply to manage your growth isn't the wisest thing to do, "'she says. "You're not just talking about new people moving in; you're talking about my chil- dren, other people's children. " In addition to charging higher water rates and other conserva- tion efforts - which only began in earnest when Las Vegas water of- ficials realized that they might run out of water for growth by 1995 in- stead of well beyond the year 2000 - Mulroy's agency has brokered a few years' supply from a local in- dustrial user and Southern Califor- nia Edison, a POWl'!' .company, Getting more water out of the Colorado River has to be pursued, she says, or Las Vegas' economy could be jolted. There also is a le- gal line of attack. Water lawsuits have cost Colorado taxpayers at least $10 million since the mid- 19808. Money is one thing Nevada can ante up. But lawsuits-can take years, something southern Nevada can't afford to squander. Mulroy wants to get new water cooperatively, but must lay hands on it one way or another. "I don't know what it's going to take to get people to try to see the world from where the other guy sits," she says. "There are people who live here that have the same needs as people who live in Denver." Schlegel puts it a different way: "There is very powerful support for the efforts of the Southern Nevada Water Au- thority and (Nevada's) Colorado River Commission to acquire more water sources. They're willing to put all kinds of money, time, effort and political power into that." @) PENNSYLVANIJ\ Wall Unit & Entertainment Center Sale Created From Solid Appalachian.. Pine Save 30% Inspired by the designs of country crafts- men, this collection features a naturally distressed look that's perfect in every setting. Choose from bookcases and tv/stereo cabinets ~~!!1tJRtt 'Hand Crafl6d Fumito;r6' 3 \'urrln_n<lnR",..II.bl. Mon.,Wtd"Frl.!J:00+6:00 Tues., Thurs., S.,. 9:01).5:30 ;Sun. 1:00.4:00 695..686 !l 106971. ~ Dartmouth Ave. JosIilllJ SAV~'b'N ADRIEN,A:RIPEL'S@ .. ,. '. .".:"."':::'..' . "f,:' . ONE HOUR':EDItoPEAN NON-SURGiCAL FACIAL LIFT AND MAKEUP + HAND TREATMENT REGULARLY $70... 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