Navajo Nation Ganado Irrigation Project

The Navajo Nation has stored and distributed water since the early twentieth century for agricultural and grazing purposes. The Ganado Irrigation System is located within the Ganado Chapter, Navajo Nation, Ganado, Arizona. The primary water supply for the irrigation system is the Ganado Reservoir, an off-stream diversion of the Pueblo Colorado Wash (also known as Ganado Wash), which is a tributary of the Little Colorado River.

For more than 50 years, the Ganado Irrigation System was the economic centerpiece of the Ganado community. However, beginning in 1981, water diversion and irrigation were discontinued due to concerns over the safety of the Ganado Dam. In 1995 the safety issues were corrected through the Bureau of Indian Affair's (BIA) Safety of Dams program, which resulted in the rehabilitation of Ganado Dam. Shortages of water in Pueblo Colorado Wash delayed filling the reservoir until 1998. By early 2000, irrigation capability was restored to approximately 137 acres developed for agriculture. Heavy silt deposition, failure of certain structural features, and vegetative growth within the main canal and laterals have rendered much of the system highly inefficient or inoperable, hindering the distribution of water. Consequently, many agricultural fields that once were irrigated are now dryland farmed or fallow.

The Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) and Navajo Nation Department of Water Resources (NNDWR), in conjunction with other Federal and local entities prepared and evaluated alternatives for improving water management, conservation, and distribution within the Ganado Irrigation System. The resulting recommendations are termed the Ganado Irrigation Water Conservation Project (GIWCP), whose purpose is to develop a system that will enable the efficient conveyance of irrigation water to farmland and promote on-farm water conservation measures.

The proposed new conveyance system will replace the existing earthen canal with a combination of buried pipeline and concrete-lined canal. This would provide a cost-effective, highly efficient method of conveying irrigation water to agricultural fields within the Ganado irrigation System. Redevelopment of the system proposed under GIWCP would extend irrigation capability to 637 acres, all of which have previously been or are being farmed.

BIA has trust asset jurisdiction over the Ganado Irrigation System, and they contracted with Reclamation through an Interagency Agreement to conduct a cultural resource survey of the Ganado Irrigation System. Reclamation, in turn, contracted with Archaeological Consulting Services, Ltd. (ACS), of Tempe, Arizona, to conduct a Class III survey of the irrigation canal right-of-way and approximately 50 acres of proposed work areas adjacent to the canal. ACS conducted this field work under Navajo Nation Cultural Resources Investigation Permit No. B00195, written permission from James J. Hooper, III, the Chief Operating Officer of the Sage Memorial Hospital, and with verbal permission from Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site.