Letter: Drought one of many reasons to limit growth

Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2003 | 8:56 a.m.

In your Aug. 29 editorial headlined "What's in for me, anyway?" you indicated that I argued against the water restrictions as being unfair to Boulder City as our growth is stagnant. My argument is much broader than that. These water restrictions are unfair to all the current water users in Southern Nevada.

No one argues that the current water demand is beyond our ability to supply. No one argues that the situation will get nothing but worse. What is fair, or sensible, about asking us all to reduce our water usage so that additional water users -- more than 20,000 a year -- can be added?

You say that curtailing growth would cause our economy to grind to a halt and suffer irreparable damage. That is questionable, but even if so, when would that not be the case? The growth we have experienced over the last 10 to 15 years is just a ponzi scheme. New growth will continue to pay for the deficits of old growth but, as we all know, growth does not pay for itself. When it stops, we all will pay the piper.

I say, stop it now while we still have the ability to furnish reasonably sufficient water to the current customers.

There is no question that some segments of our communities benefit from growth, but the average citizen has not seen our quality of life improve because of growth. Taxes have increased, schools are hard pressed to offer quality education, traffic has become unbearable and on and on. It is time for the voters to realize that their elected representatives do not represent their best interests but do represent the interests of those groups benefiting from our out-of-control growth.

BILL SMITH

Editor's note: Bill Smith is a former Boulder City councilman. He ran for mayor earlier this year and lost by 18 votes.