LECTURE SERIES
Water in the Mojave Desert: Past, Present & Future
When: Thursday, February 19,2015
Where:
CSN-College of Southern Nevada,
Henderson Campus,
Caesar J. Caviglia Academic Building
700 College Dr. Henderson, NV 89002
Lecture Room: John C. Kish Auditorium
Time: 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM
Presenters:
John Entsminger
General Manager, Las Vegas Valley Water District and Southern Nevada Water Authority
John Tennert
Utility Management Specialist
Moderator:
Mark Hall-Patton
Historian, Clark County Museum
John Tennert
Utility Management Specialist
John is responsible for strategic and operational support and analysis associated with providing water and wastewater (sewer) services to the residents of Henderson. Prior to working for the City of Henderson, John served as project manager for the Clark County Desert Conservation Program which is responsible for regional management and compliance with the endangered species act. John also spent approximately 6 years with the Las Vegas Valley Water District and Southern Nevada Water Authority in its Public Services Department. John is a graduate of Washington State University and the University of Texas at El Paso and is currently a doctoral candidate with the Center for Public Administration and Policy at Virginia Tech.
John Entsminger
General Manager, Las Vegas Valley Water District and Southern Nevada Water Authority
LVVWD serves nearly 370,000 customer accounts, and the SNWA, provides water to local agencies that collectively serve 2 million residents and 40 million annual visitors. Prior to taking the helm of these agencies in early 2014, Entsminger was instrumental in the development of several groundbreaking regional and international water agreements. He has been appointed by Governor Sandoval to serve as Nevada’s lead negotiator on Colorado River matters. Active in several national water associations, Entsminger serves on the Board of Trustees of the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies.
MODERATOR:
Mark Hall-Patton
Administrator, Clark County Museum System
Mark Hall-Patton is the Museums Administrator for the Clark County museum system, where he oversees the Clark County Museum, the Howard W. Cannon Aviation Museum, and the Searchlight History Museum. He has been with Clark County for twenty years, and was previously the Director of the San Luis Obispo County Historical Museum in California. He has worked for both public and private non-profit museums, and has consulted with numerous start-up and established museums and museum boards.
He is a MAP surveyor for the American Alliance of Museums, and the author of two books, over 400 published articles, and has written and produced 48 local history videos. In 2009, he hosted a live interview program on C4 television in the Vegas
valley, and is regularly seen on the History Channel’s Pawn Stars as a visiting expert. He has also appeared on American Restoration, The United Stuff of America, America; Facts and Fallacies, and Mysteries at the Museum.
In addition to 14 years as a Board member of the Nevada Museums Association, where he served as President from 2000-2002 and 2008-2010, he has served on the California Association of Museums and Western Museums Association boards. He is a member of the board of the Nevada Test Site Historical Foundation, and the Nevada Aerospace Hall of Fame. He has been in the museum field for over 37 years, having also worked with museums in California and South Dakota. He holds a BA in History from the University of California at Irvine, and did graduate work in Museum Studies at the University of Delaware.
He is married to Dr. Colleen Hall-Patton, professor of Sociology and Women’s Studies at UNLV, and they are the parents of Joseph and Ellen Hall-Patton.
Some of the below photos show the water pipeline from Lake Mead to the BMI Project. The pipeline was completed in 1943. Prior to that all water in the Las Vegas valley came from artesian springs and wells. During construction of the BMI Plant and housing, water was hauled from wells by train to the site and stored in wooden tanks.
