Arizona company awarded $46M contract for Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project pumping plants

AZTEC — The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has awarded a nearly $46 million contract to a Phoenix-based company to construct two pumping plants as part of the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project.

Archer Western Construction, LLC is tasked with building the Tooh Haltsooi Pumping Plant near Sheep Springs and the Bahastł’ah Pumping Plant near Twin Lakes and Coyote Canyon, according to a press release sent on Sept. 2.

 “Today, we take another step to provide clean, reliable water supplies to the Navajo Nation and the other project participants in rural communities,” said Commissioner Brenda Burman in the press release. “These pumping plants will help deliver water from the San Juan River to communities along the San Juan Lateral pipeline.”

The Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project will take water from the San Juan River through a pipeline to Navajo communities as well as the City of Gallup. According to the press release, it will provide water to 43 Navajo Nation chapters, a portion of the Jicarilla Apache Nation and Gallup. It will include 300 miles of pipeline, two water treatment plants, 19 pumping plants and multiple water storage tanks.

Archer Western’s contract includes constructing water storage tanks at both pumping plants, as well as a water treatment building at the Tooh Haltsooi Pumping Plant.

Construction will take up to three years and each plant and its associated structures will encompass about two acres of land.

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