# Plain Language Summary: Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project Amendments Act of 2023

This bill updates and expands a water project designed to bring clean drinking water to the Navajo Nation and surrounding communities in northwestern New Mexico and Arizona. The original project was authorized back in 2009, but this new bill modernizes it to reflect current plans and costs, and opens the door for the water system to serve more communities than originally planned.

The core of what this bill does is straightforward: it allows the federal government to move forward with building water infrastructure—including pipelines, pumping stations, treatment plants, and storage facilities—to deliver water from the San Juan River to Navajo Nation communities and the city of Gallup, New Mexico. The bill updates the project's cost estimate to about $2.1 billion (adjusted for 2022 prices) and clarifies that the project should follow the most recent environmental studies and plans rather than older draft documents. It also allows the Navajo Nation to expand water service to additional communities in New Mexico and Arizona, including the town of Lupton, Arizona, without increasing the overall project cost. This expansion means more tribal members could benefit from the water system while actually lowering the per-customer cost of operating and maintaining it.

A significant part of this bill deals with land ownership. It authorizes the federal government to take certain parcels of land into trust for the Navajo Nation—meaning the land would become part of the Navajo Reservation and be managed according to tribal law. This includes land where water facilities will be built, as well as land underlying the San Juan Generating Station (a coal power plant). The bill also allows the project to use up to $6.25 million to develop renewable energy sources like solar panels or small hydroelectric systems for parts of the project that don't have access to existing power sources, with up to $1.25 million of that specifically for hydroelectric power generation.

Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project Amendments Act of 2023

Leger Fernandez, Teresa

Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project Amendments Act of 2023 This bill extends deadlines and otherwise revises the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project. This project was first authorized by the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, which settled the Navajo Nation's water rights in the San Juan Basin of New Mexico. Specifically, the bill extends through December 31, 2029, the deadline for constructing project facilities. The bill allows for additional project service areas, including by allowing the Navajo Nation to expand the project service area in order to deliver water supply from the project to Lupton, Arizona. The bill directs the Department of the Interior to take certain land into trust for the benefit of the Navajo Nation. The bill also establishes (1) the Navajo Nation Operations, Maintenance, and Replacement Trust Fund; and (2) the Jicarilla Apache Nation Operations, Maintenance, and Replacement Trust Fund.