Jacobs recently began constructing the San Juan Lateral Water Treatment Plant, part of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s (Reclamation) $2.3 billion Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project. The project aims to reliably deliver water from the San Juan River to the eastern section of the Navajo Nation, the southwestern portion of the Jicarilla Apache Nation, and the City of Gallup, New Mexico.
“The water treatment plant is the largest component of the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project, and one of its final major elements,” Jacobs Executive Vice President Greg Fischer said. “It’s designed to remove inorganic, organic, and microbiological contaminants in full compliance with the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, maintaining the long-term protection of public health.”
In August 2024, Jacobs — along with major subcontractors Archer Western and Corbins — was awarded the design-build contract to construct the $267 million San Juan Lateral Water Treatment Plant, located near Shiprock, New Mexico.
“Design-build, delivered under a firm fixed-price contract, is a project model in which a single entity is responsible for both the design and construction. The total cost is set before work begins, meaning Jacobs assumes the risk of any cost overruns,” Fischer said. “For the client, this approach provides a single point of accountability, predictable pricing, and often faster overall delivery schedule.”
The contract includes the design, construction, startup, testing, commissioning, and short-term operations of the water treatment plant. Jacobs will conduct operations and maintenance (O&M) of the plant for 12 months to 24 months after construction ends. It is expected that Reclamation will transfer O&M of the facility to the Navajo Nation and Navajo Tribal Utility Authority at the end of 2029 or 2030.
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The San Juan Lateral Water Treatment Plant is part of the San Juan Lateral, one of two independently operated water transmission systems that comprise the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project.
Jacobs designed and built the water treatment plant on the other water transmission system, the Cutter Lateral, as well. Reclamation transferred O&M responsibility of the Cutter Lateral Water Treatment Plant to the Navajo Nation and its utility authority in June 2022. Designers used similar layouts and water treatment systems for both plants, which will help the Navajo Nation run them in the future.
Though they may be similar, the San Juan Lateral Water Treatment Plant is six times the size of the Cutter Lateral plant. The Cutter Lateral Water Treatment Plant is approximately 20 acres in size, compared to the San Juan plant that was optimized to fit in a 44-acre footprint.
“We built the Cutter Lateral Water Treatment Plant first because we wanted to build a smaller-scale project to understand where our problem areas were,” said Bart Deming, Construction Engineer for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s Four Corners Construction Office. “One of the benefits we're seeing now is understanding lessons learned from that project and — because we have a lot of the same people designing and building the San Juan plant — the relationships are there, so it's been pretty seamless.”
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The contract also requires Jacobs to develop a network of hardware and software called supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) modules for the water treatment plant. SCADA modules will allow the additional facilities on the San Juan Lateral — including 13 pumping plants and multiple storage tanks — to communicate with the new plant. Jacobs also will be responsible for potential repairs to all San Juan Lateral components, even if they were designed and built by other firms.
Design work on the San Juan Lateral Water Treatment Plant began immediately after the contract was awarded and was complete in February 2026. Jacobs broke ground in spring 2025, when the project was less than 60 percent designed.
“We’re facing challenges typical of design-build projects, including beginning construction before the design is fully complete,” Jacobs Design-Build Manager Lamar Parker said. “Fortunately, our team is highly experienced, so we’re comfortable navigating that pace and complexity.”
In April 2025, the team held a Navajo blessing ceremony for the groundbreaking to bless the land and the water the plant will treat.
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“A huge component of what we do is work with the tribes to ensure we respect and incorporate their cultural beliefs, traditions, and ceremonies into our work,” Deming said.
The design team incorporated traditional Navajo principles tied to the four cardinal directions. Each direction represents a phase of the day, the seasons, and the stages of life. The orientation of the buildings and the overall site plan honor the directional relationships, which include:
- East: beginnings and birth
- South: work, learning, and daily activity
- West: family and community
- North: rest, renewal, wisdom, and strength
The layout also intentionally aligns with Shiprock — a sacred peak, named Tse’bit’a’i in Navajo, that is located west of the site — to reinforce cultural connection and respect.
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“The site layout reflects deep respect for the Navajo Nation, the Jicarilla Apache Nation, and the Gallup, New Mexico, community, emphasizing harmony with the land, sky, and all living elements that share the environment,” Parker said.
The four corners area, where Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado meet, is one of the richest areas in the United States for cultural sites and archeology. The team needed to design the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project to avoid cultural resources as much as possible.
“It’s important to have engineers and archeologists working together when you have such a culturally resource-rich area to design the pipeline alignment while protecting these valuable resources,” Deming said.
The construction team also meets quarterly with members of a programmatic agreement that consists of representatives from tribes like the Navajo Nation, Zuni, Hopi, Southern Ute, Mountain Ute, Jemez, and the Rio Grande Pueblo tribes. These representatives help the construction team identify, understand, and avoid disrupting historic and sacred areas.
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Construction of the San Juan Lateral Water Treatment Plant started in spring 2025. Currently, crews are making progress on the earthwork, which has required approximately 120,000 cubic yards of excavation, reconditioning, backfill, and site grading.
Early on, the team realized earthwork required extensive handling and testing to recondition soil material. Jacobs assembled a skilled team and relied heavily on a detailed geotechnical report to guide the proper reconditioning techniques.
The team excavated 10 feet below the building foundations and then separated removed soil materials. An onsite crusher machine processed shale to establish the proper gradation and added water to reach optimum moisture levels. This process transformed the rock material into a clay material. Then, teams placed and compacted the conditioned materials over excavated areas to form a solid foundation.
“Strong partnerships with our subcontractors, Archer Western and GEOMAT, and close coordination with our design team helped us manage this issue effectively,” Parker said.
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Next, the team will place foundations and conduct other concrete work, anticipating using more than 7,000 cubic yards of concrete. In the future, they plan to install 48,500 linear feet of piping ranging in size from 1 inch to 42 inches. Piping includes PVC, ductile iron, and fabricated welded steel.
The team expects to complete construction on the San Juan Lateral Water Treatment Plant by 2028. So far, they are ahead of schedule. Remaining on schedule depends on careful construction execution, while maintaining an open line of communication and a strong sense of teamwork.
“In design-build work, you learn something new every day,” Parker said. “Success comes down to attention to detail, clear communication, and a commitment to working as a team, which includes knowing when to listen.”
When complete, the plant will process 18.8 million gallons per day, with the capacity to expand to 45 million gallons per day. The full scope of the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project will deliver a dependable supply of water from the San Juan River to the eastern Navajo Nation’s 43 chapters, the southwestern portion of the Jicarilla Apache Nation, and the City of Gallup, New Mexico.
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“This project marks a historic milestone — a once-in-a-generation effort to address chronic water quality and shortages across the region,” Parker said.
A fleet of equipment has helped Jacob perform the earthwork required on the 44-acre site:
- Rock crushers
- Large-class excavators
- Dozers
- Scrapers
- Sheepsfoot compactors
- Articulating dump trucks
- Water trucks
- Forced-air heaters
- Concrete pumps
- Cranes
- Graders
- Owner: U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Washington, D.C.
- Water Treatment Plant Construction and Design: Jacobs Project Management Company, Dallas, Texas
- Civil and Mechanical Subcontractor: Archer Western Construction LLC, Chicago, Illinois
- Electrical Subcontractor: Corbins, a NOX Group Company, Phoenix, Arizona
- Geotechnical Engineering Subconsultant: GEOMAT, a UES Company, Farmington, New Mexico Editor’s Note: This is part two of the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project story, which first appeared in the February issue.
