On the Navajo Nation, officials say about a third of people don't have access to clean water. Back in 2009, Congress authorized a massive infrastructure project designed to address this by bringing water to more than 250,000 people, from the San Juan river. The Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project was meant to be completed this year. But it's not done and Navajo Nation president Buu Nygren is asking Congress to authorize five more years' work, and increase the budget from an initial $870 million to more than $2 billion.
KUNM sat down with President Nygren to learn more about the project and why the extension is necessary. He began by talking about why the need is so great.
BUU NYGREN: Water is extremely important on behalf of the Navajo Nation, especially when you've got thousands and thousands of our Navajo members without water. My goal has always been to try to get those projects fixed. And when it comes to the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply project, it's a project that started in over a decade ago, and it's continued to be in the works. And I testified before the Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife, and Fisheries back in March, on the importance of getting this amendment completed.
KUNM: At the ground level, what do you see when you visit these communities that don't have piped water?
NYGREN: So I've been at the Naschitti area, I’ve been around the Newcomb area. And just the amount of people still without water is one of those things where they've been waiting for this pipeline for a long time, it's been over a decade. And their hopes is that this water starts flowing. And then from there, there's another initiative, because you got to build out the branches that will actually go out to these communities. And that's going to take some additional time too. So it's one of those things, we wish we could just turn the water on as quickly as we can. But it's just moving that amount of water, which is 37,000 acre-feet of water annually. That's a lot of water to move every year. But I know when we get it done at the local level, that people will be extremely happy with it. Because right now they're still hauling water and going to the chapter houses to their watering points or wherever they can get water as they're hauling it and this will just make it easier on them.
KUNM: And for listeners that aren’t too familiar, can you give me a timeline of this project?
NYGREN: So in 2009, the original legislation was authorized to make sure that we bring water from the San Juan River. And I'm a big proponent of this, because since the water rights settlement, the nation has owned 51% of that water. And we haven't really fully utilized the 51% of the river. And so what we're trying to do is making sure that we get this pipeline done. And so the amendments in Congress is about $725 million and this funding is going to help make sure that the 43 chapters on the Navajo Nation side can have access to the water.
KUNM: So how does this water supply project work? What kind of infrastructure are we looking at?
NYGREN: So one is the San Juan lateral, it will divert and treat water from San Juan River, all the way up to the Shiprock area. And then there's a pipeline that flows down Highway 491. If you ever take a drive from Shiprock to Gallup, you'll always see road construction that's been beside the road. There's construction that has been happening on the east side of the highway. And that's going to connect Crownpoint, Gallup and Window Rock as well too. And then there's a quadrilateral divert that diverts from Bloomfield over to Ojo Encino and the eastern agency. So it's a huge endeavor as far as the Gallup water supply line.
KUNM: So this project started back in 2009. What have been some of the issues that have created a delay?
NYGREN: I think the main thing was COVID in the cost of construction. During COVID, the cost of construction dramatically increased. So the pricing was based off of 2009 and so if you're thinking 2020, 2021, 2022, the cost of everything has dramatically gone up. And those delays with COVID and everything related to it has made the project even more difficult. So that's one of the things that's really been tough on the contractor side is they're doing what they can to try to meet and build as much as they can with the dollars that they have. But in order to actually get it done, they're going to need this additional money.
KUNM: Looking forward, what plans do you have for this project?
NYGREN: Right now, I plan on being back out in DC in May, and try to get some testimonies lined up and really try to work with Congress to find that money because that whole pipeline is tied to our water rights settlement too. So the deadline is December 31, to get that done this year. End of the day, it'll be upwards of about $2 billion for the pipeline. Again, be very crucial, because without water, people can't live here. Without water, we can't have development, without water, we can't really ensure a future into the future. And in order to make sure that water is supplied, you really need a large pipeline like the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply to really help our nation.
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