Jan. 14—The Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project will receive $120 million from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to help provide a steadier source of water on tribal lands and in the Western New Mexico city.
“With this funding, we are even closer to bringing a safe and reliable water supply to our people,” Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren said in a statement.
The federal funds are from the bureau’s Reclamation Water Settlements Fund.
The project intends to create a steady supply from the San Juan River to about 40% of the chapters of the Navajo Nation, the southwestern portion of the Jicarilla Apache Nation and Gallup, which all depend on a shrinking groundwater supply, officials said.
The project was authorized in 2009.
Gallup Mayor Louie Bonaguidi in a statement called the project an economic “game changer.”
“For many years, the City of Gallup has relied on dwindling groundwater resources that are increasingly expensive and difficult to develop,” Bonaguidi said. “Water from the San Juan River constitutes the only available and economically viable long-term supply, and is therefore essential to — and guarantees — the City’s future.”
Last year, a $267 million contract was awarded to design and build the San Juan Lateral Water Treatment Plant. The plant, which will be in northwestern New Mexico, is a key feature of the project.
Nygren thanked U.S. Sens. Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján and Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández for including the funding in the continuing resolution — a bill intended to keep the federal government open — and their “tireless advocacy on behalf of the Navajo Nation.”