An estimated 30% of the 170,000 people living on the Navajo Nation do not have access to clean drinking water.
Historically, tribal water rights and federal and state governments have undergone decades of litigation to settle their water rights. The 1922 Colorado River Compact, while dividing Colorado River water among seven Western states, notably excluded tribes from the allocation process.
The Navajo Nation settled their water rights with the United States and the state of New Mexico in the 2000s. In 2009, President Obama signed legislation providing funding and authorizing the construction of the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project 2009.
The project would deliver fresh drinking water to the Navajo Nation, Jicarilla Apache Nation, and the city of Gallup, capable of providing water to over 200,000 people.
According to the Bureau of Reclamation’s most recent estimate, the project will cost the federal government $2.2 billion.
Bart Deming, a construction engineer for the Bureau of Reclamation in the Four Corners, says the project will change lives.
“Some communities on the Navajo Nation do get drinking water from groundwater currently, but it's poor quality. It's quickly being depleted because the hydrology is not keeping up with the use over the last several decades. The Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project will provide a much cleaner and reliable water source for those communities,” said Deming.
The Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project consists of two separate water transmission systems — the San Juan Lateral and the Cutter Lateral. They each have their own pumping plants, water treatment plants, and delivery systems.
The Bureau of Reclamation completed construction on the Cutter Lateral in 2020. That water system is delivering water to eight Navajo chapters, about 1,500 homes, and about 6,200 people.
Bart Deming says the Bureau of Reclamation is more than halfway done with construction on the San Juan Lateral portion of the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project.
Congress has mandated that the Bureau of Reclamation complete the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project by the end of 2029 — and Deming says they are on track to reach that goal.
