Contract awarded for critical raw water pumping plant on the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project’s San Juan Lateral in New Mexico

FARMINGTON, N.M. ─ The Bureau of Reclamation announced today a nearly $62 million contract award to Ames Federal Contracting Group, LLC for the construction of the San Juan Lateral Pumping Plant No. 1 in northwest New Mexico. The plant is a critical component of the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project, which will pump water from the Project's Frank Chee Willetto Reservoir to the San Juan Lateral Water Treatment Plant.

Once completed, along with the other components of the San Juan Lateral's raw water system, the plant will help convey stored water from the San Juan River in Frank Chee Willetto Reservoir to the San Juan Lateral Water Treatment Plant. From there the raw water will be treated and pumped down the San Juan Lateral, allowing for vital drinking water to be delivered to Navajo communities in northwest New Mexico, Gallup, New Mexico and Window Rock, Arizona, fulfilling a commitment under the Navajo San Juan Indian Water Rights Settlement. The pumping plant's construction is being funded entirely by the Reclamation Water Settlement Fund authorized under Public Law 111-11 to supplement Congressional appropriations necessary to complete the Project. The pumping plant will be the largest on the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project with a peak capacity of 71 cubic feet per second, which would equate to being able to fill the volume of an Olympic size swimming pool in just over 20 minutes.

"This contract continues decades of collaboration between Reclamation, the Navajo Nation, the Jicarilla Apache Nation, the City of Gallup, and the State of New Mexico to treat and deliver safe and reliable drinking water to rural Navajo and Jicarilla Apache communities and City of Gallup residents in northwest New Mexico and east-central Arizona," said Reclamation's Four Corners Construction Office Construction Engineer/Manager Bart Deming. "Throughout our time working with our Project partners, we have seen firsthand the many ways this clean, reliable water source continues to improve the lives of residents and provide opportunities for economic development and job creation, which would not otherwise be available."

The Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project consists of two main pipeline systems: the San Juan Lateral and the Cutter Lateral. This contract award is for San Juan Lateral Pumping Plant No. 1, which lies just south of the San Juan River in the Navajo Nation's Nenahnezad Chapter in northwest New Mexico. The Cutter Lateral has been delivering water to Navajo homes and businesses since 2020. With construction of the San Juan Lateral now more than 70% finished, this contract continues progress toward completion of the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project with initial water deliveries slated for late 2028 and final overall project completion by the end of 2029.

The completion deadline for the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project was extended last year to Dec. 31, 2029, through an agreement between the Navajo Nation, State of New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission and the United States, collectively referred to as the Settlement Parties to the Navajo Nation's Water Right Settlement on the San Juan River Basin in New Mexico.