Press release from office of Senator Pat McCarran about bills granting rights-of-way for water lines, April 15, 1954

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE From Office of Senator Pat McCarran April 15, 1954 WASHINGTON- -Permanent rights-of-way for water lines from Lake Mead to Henderson, and to Las Vegas, would be granted by the Federal Government under terms of companion bills introduced today by Senator Pat McCarran. For the lake Mead-Henderson line, the right-of-way would be granted to Basic Management, Inc. For the diversion line to Las Vegas, the right-of-way would be granted to the Las Vegas Valley Water District. Each bill provides for a grant of the necessary right-of-way together with such adjacent lands as may be necessary for appurtenant structures. The bills do not specify the exact lands to be granted, but would authorize that to be worked out with the Secretary of the Interior with the lands to be granted on the basis of his finding that they were necessary for the purpose of transporting the water. In letters to Robert J. Moore, Manager of Basic Management, Inc., and Harry B. Miller, Secretary of the Las Vegas Valley Water District, Senator McCarran disclosed that lie had written Senator Hugh Butler (R., Neb.), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs asking that speedy action be taken on these bills. Also, that he had written to the Secretary of the Interior, asking him to expedite his reports on the bills. Efforts to secure necessary rights-of-way through negotiation have proved futile, Senator McCarran said. For one thing, the Interior Department on behalf of the Bureau of Reclamation has sought to exact a right to divert water, up to 3 million gallons, as a sort of fee for granting a right-of-way; and this, McCarran characterized as "an unwarranted demand for tribute." But even if this "fee" could be eliminated, Senator McCarran pointed out, the right-of-way which the Interior Department has thus offered to grant as an administrative matter is only a revocable right-of-way, and thus is entirely unsatisfactory, since, among other reasons, it could not be used as the basis for a bond issues "The only way I can see to solve this problem is through the means of a statutory enactment", Senator McCarran declared. "I shall do everything I can to try to get these bills acted upon speedily*" - 30 -