$75.5 million water pipeline contract advances in McKinley County

A $75.5 million contract is pushing the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project deeper into McKinley County, where nearly 10,000 feet of pipeline will be installed by horizontal directional drilling. The work runs from the Frank Chee Willetto Reservoir, about 17 miles east of Shiprock, to the San Juan Lateral Water Treatment Plant now under construction in the Hogback Chapter area of San Juan County.

For families across McKinley County and nearby Navajo communities, the immediate promise is not a ribbon-cutting but a steadier water future. The Bureau of Reclamation said the contract, awarded June 10 to Flatland Energy Services LLC, is part of a system meant to deliver reliable municipal and industrial water to about 250,000 people over 40 years, including roughly 43 Navajo Nation chapters, the city of Gallup and part of the Jicarilla Apache Nation.

The trenchless work is designed to carry 36-inch to 42-inch pipe beneath some of the project’s hardest terrain and existing infrastructure. Crews will make four major underground crossings at Shumway Arroyo, the San Juan River, Nenahnezad Hill and the Chaco River, with individual pipeline sections ranging from about 2,000 to 3,300 feet. The Nenahnezad Hill bore alone includes an elevation change of about 250 feet.

Reclamation said the contract added to more than $143 million in contracts it has already awarded this year to advance the Navajo Gallup Water System. The broader project spans about 300 miles of pipeline, 19 pumping plants and two water treatment plants, a scale that underscores how much of northwestern New Mexico’s water future is tied to this system.

Construction on the project began in 2012 after Congress authorized it in the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009. The Navajo Nation Office of the President and Vice President said in April that water delivery is expected to begin in 2028, while Reclamation’s project overview says the San Juan Lateral is anticipated to be completed in 2028. Some lawmakers have said full project completion is planned for 2029.

The need remains urgent. The Navajo Nation has said about 41% of residents still haul water for themselves and their livestock, and that 30% to 40% of families lack running water in their homes to drink, cook or bathe. Against that backdrop, the new McKinley County drilling contract is another visible step toward a project that has been discussed for decades and is now moving toward the point where households could finally feel the difference.