Navajo Gallup Water Supply Project

The Navajo Gallup Water Supply Project is the cornerstone of the Navajo Nation water rights settlement in the San Juan River Basin in New Mexico. This water rights settlement resolves longstanding disputes about the Navajo Nation's rights to water in the San Juan River Basin in New Mexico. The Navajo Gallup Water Supply Project will bring a clean and sustainable water supply to the Navajo Nation, where an estimated 40-percent of residents are dependent upon hauling water for use in their homes, and will help to augment the City of Gallup's drinking water system, which is facing decreasing water supplies. The Bureau of Reclamation, has designed the project so that newly constructed phases, or reaches , will be connected to existing infrastructure and therefore will be able to deliver water to Navajo communities that do not currently have water. The Jicarilla Apache Nation may also choose to enter into a contract with the United States to receive water from the project. The Navajo Gallup Water Supply Project will include the construction of two water treatment plants, 280 miles of pipeline, 24 pumping plants, and numerous water regulation and storage facilities. The project will deliver water to the Navajo Nation, the Jicarilla Apache Nation, and the City of Gallup. Construction is anticipated to begin in mid-2012, pending approval and execution of all of the agreements required by the Northwestern New Mexico Rural Water Projects Act, Section X, Subtitle B of P.L. 111-11, the federal legislation enacted to approve the settlement and authorize the construction of the Navajo-Gallup Project. The two remaining agreements are between the United States and the Navajo Nation and the United States and the City of Gallup, New Mexico, regarding various purposes specified in the federal legislation. In addition, before construction of the project can begin, Reclamation will need to obtain approvals from other federal agencies and state regulators to conduct surveys and perform adequate site analysis and testing and award the construction contracts. A Programmatic Agreement between federal, state, and tribal entities regarding effects on historic and cultural properties will allow the construction activities to proceed efficiently. Design and construction work on the project will be carried out by Reclamation, as well as the Navajo Nation, City of Gallup, and the Indian Health Service.