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Representatives from Reclamation’s Upper Colorado Basin Region Four Corners Construction Office, Navajo Nation, and design-build contractor, Jacobs, were presented with three national design-build awards by the Design Build Institute of America at the Design-Build Conference & Expo, Nov. 6, for their work on the Cutter Lateral Reach 21 Water Treatment Plant of the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project in northwest New Mexico.

The Cutter Lateral Water Treatment Plant team was honored with the 2021 Design-Build National Award of Merit in Water/Wastewater (for being one of the best three design-build projects in that category); the 2021 Design-Build National Award of Excellence in Water/Wastewater (the highest honor in that category); and the 2021 Design-Build Institute of America Chairman’s Award for the project that demonstrated the greatest Community Impact & Social Responsibility, highlighting the benefits it is providing to the Navajo Nation chapters on the east side of the reservation and the southwest corner of the Jicarilla Apache Nation for which the project serves.

The awards are given annually by DBIA to honor the nation’s best design-build projects and leaders. This was the first water/wastewater design-build project Reclamation has ever undertaken.

The Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project is the cornerstone of the Navajo Nation Water Rights Settlement in the San Juan River Basin in New Mexico and was authorized for construction by the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 (P.L. 111-11) to provide for a reliable municipal and industrial water supply to the eastern half of the Navajo Nation, southwestern part of the Jicarilla Apache Nation, and the City of Gallup, New Mexico.  When complete, the project will consist of two water treatment plants, 300 miles of water transmission pipeline, 19 pumping plants, and numerous storage tanks.  The Cutter Lateral construction, completed in October 2020, is providing a better quality, reliable, and sustainable drinking water supply to replace existing groundwater sources that are dwindling and of poor water quality. The water treatment plant is located within the Navajo Nation reservation at the base of the Huerfano Mesa, a very sacred and spiritual site for the Navajo people.

“Those people (who have access to water now), I know, are really happy. I go to meetings, and I see their faces and the way they ask questions. It’s a real big, big thing for them,” said Navajo Nation Water Commissioner and hands-on advocate of the NGWSP and especially the Cutter Lateral, Bert Sandoval.

Sandoval has a personal connection to the area of the Navajo Nation that now has clean, reliable drinking water. He spent much of his childhood just down the road from where the new water treatment facility stands today.

“When I was young, I lived a real traditional life,” said Sandoval. “Then, when I was 12, I moved off the reservation and moved to the city – Farmington, New Mexico. Then I got accustomed to the modern world, running water and showers … To me this is a great, great thing, the kids being happy they can wash their face in the mirror and look good. I didn’t have that.”

“Sandoval explained that growing up, his family had to ration their water on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis and had to travel 8 to 10 miles by horse-drawn wagon to get water from a well where we would have to draw the water using a bucket from the well.

“Some wells had windmills (to draw the water), but we still had to boil it before you could use it. It was a real hardship to find clean water to cook with,” said Sandoval.

The newly constructed water treatment facility; clearwell; treated water pumping station; chemical, operations and maintenance facilities; and more than 21,400 feet of raw, treated, and finished water pipelines, were all built to treat water from the Cutter Reservoir and provide a clean, reliable, and long-term water source for the Navajo and Jicarilla Apache Nation communities along the Cutter Lateral. This project tied into the Reaches 22a and 22b raw water transmission pipeline design and constructed by Reclamation and to the Eastern Navajo Water Pipeline design and constructed by the Navajo Nation.  The dependable water supply will enable potential areas of growth and development including commercial, community facilities, wellness centers, medical facilities, and housing developments.

“As of the end of May, eight Navajo Nation chapters are now receiving high-quality drinking water to replace poorer quality and unsustainable groundwater that had been serving these communities,” said FCCO Deputy Construction Engineer Bart Deming. “That’s clean water for about 6,000 people or 1,500 households and by the end of this year the Jicarilla Apache Nation will also be receiving drinking water from the Cutter Lateral.”

While those fortunate to have homes with indoor plumbing and connected to existing Navajo Tribal Utility Authority public water systems in the area (over one-third of households still have to haul drinking water on the Navajo Nation) were receiving water from ground sources, it was not sustainable and typically had taste, color, and odor issues. The new water treatment facility now solves both of those concerns, as well as provides the opportunity to provide water to those Navajo households still hauling water and to allow for economic development to occur in the region.

“The Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project has been a vision of Navajo and City of Gallup leaders for the last six or seven decades,” said Deming. “It’s unthinkable in this day and age that many Navajo people don’t have running water in their homes and is part of the reason the COVID-19 pandemic hit this area much harder than other areas of the nation.  This project is helping to bring Navajo communities this vital resource that many in our country take for granted.

“Many people have worked to make this vision happen, including people from the Navajo Nation, like Bert Sandoval, Navajo Tribal Utility Authority, Reclamation’s Four Corners Construction Office, Technical Service Center, Western Colorado Area Office, Upper Colorado Basin Regional Office and our great design-build partners at Jacobs,” said Deming. “We are incredibly proud of the quality-of-life improvements this project will help bring to the Navajo people.”

Reclamation and Jacobs will operate the new water treatment facilities until April 2022 when the operations and maintenance responsibilities will be transferred to the Navajo Nation Utility Authority.

For more information about the DBIA award program, the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project, or the award-winning Cutter Lateral water treatment project, please visit https://dbia.org/project/cutter-lateral-reach-21-water-treatment-plant-and-associated-items-navajo-gallup/ or https://www.usbr.gov/uc/progact/navajo-gallup/index.html.