Navajo-Gallup water project cost rising to over $716M

By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — The Bureau of Reclamation's preferred alternative for the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project had an estimated price tag of $716,100,000 in 2005. Now, it is being repriced.

"That was a good estimate in 2005," said Rege Leach of BOR's Durango, Colo., office. "But today, we know it s going to be more. How much more, until we get done with it, I can t really tell."

The preferred alternative, known as the San Juan River Public Service Company of New Mexico alternative, calls for two separate pipelines to divert water: one from the San Juan River downstream of Fruitland and just above the existing PNM diversion structure, and another at Cutter Reservoir on the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project.

BOR is now working on a revised cost estimate which could take three to four months to complete. The project itself is expected to take 12 to 13 years to build once it is authorized and initially funded by Congress, a process that could take up to another two years.

However, the city of Gallup will be out of water in less than a decade, according to BOR. So the city's got to do something in the interim, Leach said. "I think they have a plan to stretch out the existing water until the San Juan water can get there."

Growing demand
The 2005 cost estimate included in the Planning Report and Draft Environmental Impact Statement released in March is being re-evaluated because prices go up every year. And in the last four years, there have been exceptional increases in the price of gasoline, steel and concrete.

"Whenever we start to see these large jumps that you just can't add 4- or 5 percent to, you ve got to actually call a distributor and say, How much does a 40-inch steel pipe cost? You ve got to do that frequently," Leach said.

There are other factors as well. Demand, for example. With development going on in India and China, the demand for steel and concrete has been great, so they can sell those products for more, he said.

At some point that will start letting off. There will be not as much demand and so you ll see that increase not be so great from year to year.

If the water project and the Department of Transportation's U.S. 491 improvement project receive funding at the same time, the two agencies could piggyback and work together to reduce impacts and costs.

Leach said BOR is now working with DOT "so we don't step on each other's toes. If it just so happens we get funding at the same time, we'll definitely be doing that and saving things like cultural resources."

"We re going to find all kinds of things as we're excavating there. The same with the highway when they widen. Because the Navajo-Gallup long-term water supply project is federal, it would have to be authorized by Congress," he said.

"That's the first step: Congress authorizes the Bureau of Reclamation to build this project, then each year Congress establishes their budget and this project would get a certain amount of funding," Leach said. "So, however much funding would be given by Congress each year would be how much we would build each year."

Closer than ever
Water from the Cutter Lateral would come out of Cutter Reservoir, an existing reservoir that is part of the NIIP project. Just down from Cutter Reservoir there would be a water treatment plant. The pipeline would parallel U.S. 550 to Counselor and on down to Ojo Encino and Torreon, he said.

The town of Counselor recently was purchased by the Navajo Nation.

The Jicarilla Apache Nation also has a part in the project, Leach said. So there at Counselor along U.S. 550 there would be a "T" in the pipeline where the Jicarillas would come and get their water.

What their plans are now is to take water from Counselor down to the Teepee junction, and they re hoping to do some development there around Teepee junction, he said.

What they re thinking is that along U.S. 550 they would have maybe a hotel and convenience stores and maybe get some people living there just sort of a growing of the Jicarilla Reservation, Leach said. "This thing's been talked about for decades, and it's closer now than it's ever been. The proposed San Juan River Basin water rights settlement includes constructing the Navajo-Gallup project. So the federal government and the state government would support constructing this project, and in exchange, the Navajos would not pay for their piece of this project, "Leach said.

No more claims
But in exchange for getting this project constructed without having to pay for it, the Navajos would agree with their portion of water out of the San Juan, so they would not have a claim to come back anymore in the future for more claims for water out of the San Juan. That s the basics of the agreement, he said.

"This is a lot of money and it's going to take a while to work its way through the committees in Congress. It could go quickly, but it would not be unusual for it to take two years. It's going to be tough for Gallup, there's no question. But they re doing a good job of conservation. Prices have gone up for water and their water use per capita has gone down," Leach said.

Negative impacts associated with construction of the lateral lines include converting 43 acres of private and Navajo Nation lands to project use, the relocation of six families now living on private land, and permanent loss of 43 acres of vegetation and wildlife habitat, he said.