Overview

The Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project is a major infrastructure project that once constructed, will convey a reliable municipal and industrial water supply from the San Juan River to the eastern section of the Navajo Nation, southwestern portion of the Jicarilla Apache Nation, and the city of Gallup, New Mexico via about 300 miles of pipeline, nineteen pumping plants, and two water treatment plants.

These areas currently rely on a rapidly depleting groundwater supply that is of poor quality and inadequate to meet the current and future demands of more than 43 Navajo chapters, the city of Gallup, and the Teepee Junction area of the Jicarilla Apache Nation. Ground water levels for the city of Gallup have dropped approximately 200 feet over the past 10 years and over 40 percent of Navajo Nation households rely on hauling water to meet their daily needs. Inadequate water supply also impacts the ability of the Jicarilla Apache people to live and work outside the reservation town of Dulce.

The Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project is designed to provide a long-term sustainable water supply to meet the future (40-year) population needs of approximately 250,000 people in these communities through the annual delivery of 37,764 acre-feet of water from the San Juan Basin. The project's eastern branch will divert approximately 4,645 acre-feet of water annually with no return flow to the San Juan River. The project's western branch will divert the remaining 33,119 acre-feet of water with an anticipated average annual return flow of 1,871 acre-feet.

The Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, Title X Part III (Public Law 111-11) signed on March 30, 2009, provided the authorization to construct this important project as a major component of the Navajo Nation San Juan River Basin Water Rights Settlement in New Mexico. The act requires that all project features are completed no later than December 31, 2024, unless the three signatory parties to the Settlement Agreement (the Navajo Nation, the State of New Mexico, and the Department of the Interior) agree to extend the completion date.

In 2020, water deliveries to Navajo communities began on the Cutter Lateral. Deliveries to the Jicarilla Apache Nation from the Cutter Lateral are anticipated to begin in 2021. On the San Juan Lateral, construction is underway and is anticipated to be completed in 2028.

General

At-A-Glance

• The Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project (Project) will provide a reliable long-term municipal and industrial water supply to the eastern section of the Navajo Nation, southwestern portion of the Jicarilla Apache Nation, and the city of Gallup, New Mexico.
• These areas currently rely on rapidly depleting groundwater of poor quality and inadequate to meet current and future demands of more than 43 Navajo chapters including fort Defiance and Window Rock in Arizona, the city of Gallup, New Mexico, and the Teepee Junction area of the Jicarilla Apache Nation.
• The Project at full build-out will divert 37,376 acre-feet of water annually from the San Juan River Basin and treat it to Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) standards through a water treatment plant on each Lateral and convey and deliver it via approximately 300 miles of pipeline, 19 pumping plants, and several storage tanks.
• The Project has two separate pipeline laterals (water transmission systems) that will provide water for the entire project, the Cutter Lateral and San Juan Lateral. The Cutter Lateral takes water from the Cutter Reservoir (a feature constructed originally for the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project) using transmission pipelines and pumping plants to deliver the raw water to the Cutter Lateral Water Treatment Plant for treatment and delivery to the downstream indigenous communities. The San Juan Lateral will divert water from the San Juan River at the existing San Juan Generating Station diversion between the cities of Farmington and Shiprock, store it in the San Juan Generating Station Reservoir, and then through a pumping plant and several miles of pipeline convey it to the San Juan Lateral Water Treatment Plant for treatment and delivery to the downstream Navajo communities and the city of Gallup.
• This water supply will support a future population of approximately 250,000 people over a minimum 40-year time horizon.
• The Project was authorized for construction by the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act of 2009 (P.L. 111-11) on March 30, 2009, as a major component of the Navajo Nation San Juan River Basin Water Rights Settlement (Settlement) in New Mexico.
• Based on October 2021 prices, the total indexed construction cost estimate (CCE) which sets the Appropriations Ceiling for the Project is approximately $1,353,000,000. P.L. 111-11 allows for future indexing of costs based upon engineering indices. Reclamation's latest Project cost estimate which reflects design modifications and refinements made since the original CCE was developed, includes construction costs for the Project through 2021 and the latest technologies for the water treatment plants to meet SDWA requirements, as well as 40-year high inflation is approximately $1,898,000. After accounting for non-Federal contributions from Project Participants, results in a $513 million funding gap. The Project Participants have drafted legislation to amend P.L. 111-11 to among other things raise the Appropriations Ceiling to address the funding gap.
• The overall Project schedule is determined by the Project Construction Committee consisting of representatives from Reclamation, city of Gallup, Navajo Nation, Jicarilla Apache Nation, and state of New Mexico. The project schedule is driven by funding provided through Congress and state of New Mexico.
• The Project construction began in 2012 and is anticipated to be complete in 2029.
• The legislation requires the completion of all project feature construction no later than December 31, 2024, unless extended by the signatory parties (Navajo Nation, United States, and the State of New Mexico) to the Settlement.
• As the project reaches the peak of construction activities, it is anticipated that a total of 600-650 jobs will have been created.
• In addition to Reclamation, the city of Gallup, Navajo Nation, and Indian Health Service will simultaneously perform design and construction tasks for various project reaches under their own authorities in accordance with financial assistance agreements with Reclamation.
• Reclamation and our partners have made significant progress towards the completion of the Project since it was authorized in 2009. The Cutter Lateral was completed in October 2020 and Reclamation and the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority began making initial water deliveries to Navajo communities that same month. As of May 2021, Project water is being delivered to approximately 6,000 people or over 1,500 households in 8 Navajo chapters (Huerfano, Tiistohsikaad (Burnham), Nageezi, Counselor, Ojo Encino, Torreon/Star Lake, Whitehorse Lake, and Pueblo Pintado) along U.S. Highway 550 and in late 2022 to the southwest portion of the Jicarilla Apache Reclamation and the Navajo Nation and NTUA executed an operations, maintenance, and replacement contract for the upper Reaches of the Cutter Lateral owned by Reclamation (Reaches 22a, 22b, and the Cutter Lateral Water Treatment Plant) on June 7, 2022, and commemorated this historic agreement with a ceremony on June 9, 2022. As of that date, NTUA is now operating the entire Cutter Lateral transmission system.
• Reclamation and our partners have completed more than 50% of the San Juan Lateral as of the summer 2022. Of the 300 miles of Project water transmission pipeline, 267 miles are either installed or under contract, leaving only 33 miles remaining to complete designs on.

History

The Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project has a long history dating back over four decades. Throughout that time, a number of proposals have been studied to deliver water from the San Juan River and other sources of water to communities in the Navajo Nation and to the city of Gallup.

In December 1971, Public Law 92-199 provided specific authority to conduct feasibility studies for the “Gallup Project, New Mexico” culminating in a reconnaissance report dated October 1973.

Topography survey work for pipeline alignment design

A second study was completed in January 1984 that included expanded service to Navajo communities as well as to the city of Gallup based on a 1975 request by the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority to include municipal and domestic water supplies for various Navajo communities in the eastern part of the Navajo Reservation.

In September 1986, an appraisal-level estimate for a system with a main transmission line along Highway 371 was completed followed by completion in November 1993 of an appraisal-level study was conducted to deliver water from the Gallegos Reservoir, a planned feature of the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project.  Planning activities for the study were directed by a steering committee chaired by the Northwest New Mexico Council of Governments with representatives from the Navajo Nation, city of Gallup, New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and Reclamation. The Jicarilla Apache Nation later joined as a project participant.

By 2000, five viable alternatives for the project had been developed and were evaluated in a draft planning report / draft environmental impact statement published in March 2007. The Final Planning Report/Final Environmental Impact Statement was filed with the Environmental Protection Agency on July 6, 2009, and the report was distributed to the public on the same date. The record of decision was signed on October 1, 2009.

With the signing of the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, (Public Law 111-11) signed on March 30, 2009 Reclamation was authorized to construct the project pending completion of the FEIS and signed ROD; execution of a water rights settlement agreement and settlement contract with the Navajo Nation; execution of a cost-share agreement with the state of New Mexico; and execution of required repayment contracts with project beneficiaries.

The Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project has evolved as a major infrastructure initiative to supply approximately 250,000 people approximately 37,800 acre-feet of municipal and industrial water per year by 2040.

Construction

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Plan

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Other

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