Expert: 'There is water'
City Council hears plans for keeping Gallup alive

By Kevin Killough
Staff writer

GALLUP — At a special session last night, Executive Director of Gallup Joint Utilities Lance Allgood gave the City Council and mayor a presentation on the ongoing projects to alleviate Gallup’s water problems. Along with engineers and lawyers, the presenters laid out three major projects that the city is pursuing in its efforts to ensure Gallup doesn’t run out of water.

“No one project is going to solve all of Gallup’s water problems” if the city continues to grow, Allgood told the council.

The most ambitious and expensive of the efforts is the Navajo Water Supply. This is a multiphase project to divert water from Cutter Reservoir and the San Juan River to Gallup and communities throughout the Four Corners Area. Allgood explained that Gallup’s share of the capacity is 7,500 acre feet, though it may not always supply that amount.

The entire project will take 15 to 20 years to complete and cost upwards of $765 million. According to Allgood’s presentation, Gallup will have about 20 percent of the capacity. So, the city’s portion will only be 20 percent of that cost. The federal government will cover 20 to 30 percent of that portion, which will leave the city and state with the approximate $38 million that remains.

“We have enough funding to build phase one,” Allgood said.
Another project involves a series of wells that will tap into the wider aquifers around the state. The project is referred to as “G22.” Richard Brose, a geologist with Four Corners Environmental, gave a detailed explanation on the findings of various test wells that were dug around the area, which helped determine the shape, location, and nature of these aquifers.

One of the main concerns about the dependence on ground water is that it doesn’t recharge very well. The clay layers prevent permeation, so aquifers deplete as demands run them dry. According to Brose, they have found that rain water is recharging the aquifers that were tested. So, the G22 project has a lot of potential.

“There is water,” Brose said.

The final project in the overall plan is to recycle effluent water with a reverse osmosis treatment. Various communities utilize this process, but most use an indirect method. The water is treated to a point and then pumped back into the ground, where natural processes bring the water to drinking standards.

Gallup will be one of the few communities in the country that will use treatments to bring effluent directly to drinking water standards. The current plan, according to Allgood, is to blend the water with pumped ground water before passing it to residents. He says the quality will actually be higher than it is now.

“It was better than any bottle water I’ve had,” Allgood said.
The funding for the project is uncertain at this point, but its building costs and operation are expected to be expensive.