KGLP Podcasts

By Reed Black, KGLP News
August 21, 2026

 

The Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project is a major infrastructure project, and it will bring clean and safe drinking water from the San Juan River to Navajo communities across the eastern reservation and the city of Gallup by a 300-mile pipeline.

The massive undertaking is one of the many projects overseen by the Bureau of Reclamation–the federal agency which manages water and power in the West.

 

Ryan Gladden is deputy director at its Four Corners office and spoke to KGLP about being part of the team that designed the project.

 

“We're getting water drinking, treated, reliable, long-term water source to people and community that do not have that currently. They have water. They have groundwater. Some of that has high levels of iron, manganese, sulfur. But to be able to say, hey, we're improving the lives or the health, and we're working with the Nation, who's been amazing, to get this water out there,” said Gladden.

 

The project will also supply water to the city of Gallup, which is currently entirely dependent on groundwater that is pumped from the city's 46 wells. These are part of the city’s aging infrastructure, with the most recent one drilled in the early 2000s.

Gallup Mayor Marc DePauli explained what’s happening to these wells.

“The problem is what's happened over the last 120 years is that those wells, they're old. And what happens is when you suck the water out, the water provides buoyancy. And what it does is the formation breaks apart on the microscopic level. Not great big chunks, but just small little sand particles come out. And as those sand particles come out of the formation, Gallup sandstone in particular, they go into the well,” said DePauli.

He said the result is that, over time, those wells fill up with sand. Cleaning them out and properly equipping them would be far more costly than drilling new wells. This is why the city is drilling six new ones.

But, as DePauli explained further, the process to complete them takes time, and it's more than just the drilling that slows progress.  

“It takes four years to get a well permitted, drilled. And, of course, you don't just drill it. Then you've got to go build a well house, and you've got to put a pump down there, and you've got to bring electricity to it. So, it takes about a good four years from start to finish,” he said.

While the wells are being drilled, the final legs of the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project will also be completed. Gladden explained that even after the pipeline is finished, it will undergo a year of testing for safety.

“Construction will finish in the end of 2028. That's what we're estimating with a year of operations. We'll still oversee operations for a year, basically commissioning and testing, making sure that everything's operating correctly, drinking water is reaching the levels of treatment that we want, that all the communities are getting connected up and everything's working as it should,” said Gladden.

The path of the pipeline will take water from the San Juan River through the San Juan Lateral down to Navajo communities such as Crownpoint and Fort Defiance, Arizona, before eventually landing in Gallup. The pipeline was originally scheduled for completion in 2024, but the addition of the Frank Chee Willetto Reservoir delayed the project by five years–a delay that Gallup’s city council didn’t support.

“We weren't for the delay,” said DePauli. “What came out of the delay, of course, we support. The problem is we don't have water.”

Anticipating the project could run into such delays, the Bureau of Reclamation started construction of the pipeline in Gallup.

“Part of the reason we started construction from the south to the north, is we did think, hey, if we can get this pipeline going, the pipeline's there at least while we're still finishing, and you could inject water from wells into that pipeline to help the city of Gallup out,” said Gladden.

A concern with large diversion projects such as the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project is the availability of water to divert. The San Juan River is a tributary of the Colorado and, as such, is subject to the Colorado River Compact. While the project has special legal exemptions from Congress protecting the Nation’s water rights, Mother Nature rarely listens to the rules, according to Gladden.

“Not this project, in terms of, I guess I can't say anything for absolute, right? But because this is a settlement, and it was already settled by Congress, there is a certain amount of water rights allocated to the Nation, and there's a certain acreage, acre-feet per year which has to be delivered to the Nation. I'd say the bigger challenge is probably just the unknown of climate change and what that means for water supply and water levels,” said Gladden.

Shawn Williams, manager of the Fifth District of the Office of the State Engineer of New Mexico, who oversees the San Juan River and its monitoring, said, “It's better to be upstream with a shovel than downstream with a right.”

Put another way, it's better to be at the source of the water, with the power to divert it, than to be downstream without that power and still expecting it to come. As reservoir levels drop across the American Southwest, Williams’ statement seems to ring true.

The Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project is scheduled to begin delivering water through the San Juan Lateral to Gallup by the end of 2029.

Until then, workers for the city will continue drilling more wells to supply the water needs of the community.

 

NOTE: Reed Black was an intern with the New Mexico Local News Fellowships and Internships Program, which places emerging journalists in newsrooms across New Mexico. Learn more at www.newmexicolocalnewsfellowships.org.

His summer news internship with KGLP ended on August 17, 2026.

KGLP Station Manager Tom Maxedon talks to Navajo actor and musician Robert Mirabal about the newly released film, "Road to Everywhere."

The film is written and directed by Michael Paradies Shoob and is his 30-year follow-up to "Driven." 

The film runs in Gallup until Aug. 13, 2026.

https://www.roadtoeverywheremovie.com/  

By Reed Black
KGLP News
7/31/26

Heading west on Carbon Coal Road, where the pavement ends and the dirt road begins, is the Gallup Energy Logistics Park. Other than that, not much else.

That could change in the near future with the proposed construction of a data center in the area.

“We are looking at potentially acquiring 2,400 acres of property through GLP. Of that, we’re going to be building five to ten data center buildings. It’s going to be total capacity of one gigawatt that we are planning on building in five years,” Greg Thompson said while presenting the proposal during an April Gallup City Council meeting posted on YouTube.

Thompson is one of the founders of Teraplex, a Virginia-based company which specializes in AI computing. According to multiple sources, this would be the first data center built by the company.

Put simply, Thompson said, “A data center is a physical structure that houses a large amount of servers.”

He then presented some of the benefits for Gallup – everything from job creation to economic investment in the community that Teraplex wants to make.

“Once this is completely completed in five and a half years, at least 300 permanent jobs. And during the construction phase, we’re looking at anywhere from 1,500 to 2,500 construction jobs. Those are electricians. Those are HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) suppliers. Those are water personnel, network engineers. Those are all resources that we can use here,” Thompson said.  

A couple of months after the presentation, some Gallup-area residents are voicing skepticism about the benefits of Thompson’s proposal. One of those is Paulette McLaughlin, a high school teacher who resides in Mentmore.

“We live in a desert, and they're going to use, I don't know how much water, but way too much. I mean, almost all the houses have, like, rock yards. I haven't seen houses where they're growing things. Maybe there's a tree. There’s definitely weeds. Even those are struggling sometimes. And people tell me that it's not raining and snowing here as much as it used to,” said McLaughlin.

Besides her concerns about the data center’s water usage, McLaughlin also voiced her opinion about the power needed to service the facility. 

She’s also skeptical about the jobs for people living in the Gallup area.

“I don't think it's going to help out the people who live here,” she said. “Like, maybe it'll bring in people from elsewhere, but I don't know that there are people here who meet the qualifications to have a job at a data center.”

McLaughlin is not alone.

Abigail Littlefield is director of programming for Indigenous Life Ways, a New Mexico-based nonprofit dedicated to preserving and revitalizing Native languages, traditions, and cultures.  

She opposes the Teraplex project because she believes the area’s limited resources should be used elsewhere to benefit the community.

“They're doing it in a way that wastes everything that we can't get back. Water, the energy, the noise, the heat to make that data center. The effects last longer than the benefit. So, it's a very uneven scale, [and] just not beneficial to the community. Yeah, there may be development. Yeah, there may be jobs, but those jobs aren't long-lasting. There's not enough to actually support the city. So, the payoff, it's not enough for the sacrifice of what we're going through,” said Littlefield.

But, Thompson previously addressed some of Littlefield’s concerns in his April presentation, such as the aforementioned job benefits.

“What we are looking at is that we are only pulling resources from this area. We plan on training and building up this workforce as opposed to bringing in from elsewhere. That is a significant part of the plan,” said Thompson.

He also told those present at the meeting the data center will have its own power supply from solar and natural gas generators and won’t be using the city’s drinking water.

“We have no need for drinkable water. We are only looking at using effluent water, wastewater. Our buildings do not require a significant amount of water. So, we feel very comfortable that we’ll not be coming to the city in a future state to ask for any of your drinkable water, ever,” he said.

The effluent water Thompson described is processed by Gallup’s wastewater treatment plant and meets EPA standards to be released back into the environment. This effluent is currently used to water the Fox Run Golf Course in the city, and a portion is also diverted into the Rio Puerco.

Littlefield isn’t convinced by this argument.

“The effluent water agreement, I believe, has convinced some people that it's not a threat. It doesn't feel like a threat to them, so they think it's okay. It’s safe. But the effluent water agreement is for phase one,” Littlefield said.

KGLP could not independently verify this particular assertion.

Others see the data center as a way to bring people back to Gallup.

Dhruvan Otia, owner of Gallup’s Microtel Inn and Suites, suggested the COVID-19 pandemic led to the shutdown of a petroleum refinery and caused other businesses like restaurants to close, leading to a lot of permanent layoffs.

“A lot of people moved out of town because there's just no more employment,” said Otia. “So, something like a data center would be a good opportunity for people to come back and essentially, it would flow into other parts of commerce.”

For now, the data center’s request to purchase wastewater from the city has been tabled and will be discussed further. 

As data centers across the country and here in New Mexico, like the one proposed by Teraplex, run into roadblocks for approval, Gallup joins the many communities wanting to make educated decisions about their resources.

*NOTE: Reed Black is an intern with KGLP and the New Mexico Local News Fellowships and Internships Program, which places emerging journalists in newsrooms across New Mexico. Learn more at www.newmexicolocalnewsfellowships.org.

Cities like Gallup along famed Route 66 celebrate its history

By Reed Black and Tom Maxedon

 

Route 66, also known as “The Mother Road,” has hosted travelers across the American West over the last 100 years for a variety of pursuits. Some, purely for exploration and adventure. Others to make a living, or even to entertain audiences.

The latter was the case for a famous filmmaker.  

“W.D. Griffith, he was a movie producer and director, came here to Gallup, New Mexico to make a western movie,” said Leroy McCray, the official El Rancho Hotel historian, speaking during a recent tour of the iconic landmark, which was constructed in the 1930s following Griffith’s first film.

“He left, came back a second time. After he made his second movie here, he realized that this was a great place to make Western movies. Everything just had that natural western movie backdrop to it. So, him and his brother decided to build the El Rancho Hotel so they could house the movie stars while they were filming around the area here.”  

McCray recounted how average travelers on Route 66 coming to Gallup interacted with celebrities staying at the hotel.

“When the El Rancho Hotel was first built, it was sitting by itself right here. Nothing close by. The downtown was about a mile down the road down here. And anybody driving Route 66 can come off of it and mingle with the movie stars. But they had to park in the downtown area and walk up here. Only the movie stars were allowed to park in the back, so there was no parking for guests.”

Some of those movie stars included John Wayne and Errol Flynn.

“He was on a horse. They were shooting scene[s] around the area and way across on the other side they would have corrals that they would put up the horses. And instead of putting up his horse Errol Flynn rode his horse back over here, came through the front door down the hall and into the bar and ordered a whiskey for himself and beer for his horse,” said McCray.

Aside from stories about the El Rancho, Gallup’s downtown is filled with historic buildings, many of which have played host to shops, bars, and art galleries. In an effort to preserve the history of Route 66, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has been giving out grants for a variety of projects.

ART 123 in Gallup is one of the Trust’s award recipients. Gallery executive director Rose Eason said the money is being used to extend its hours of operation for its current exhibition, “66 Artists on Route 66.” She spoke about one of the featured artists.

“Gretchen Adams is a weaver. She's doing abstractions of kind of the geometry and the geography of Route 66 through our community. So artists, yeah, they're very inspired,” she said.

Eason also talked about the souvenir shop that's part of the exhibit, where many of the artists’ works can be purchased.

“The work being shown is incredibly creative, be it a keychain or a tote bag or a painting or a print, and we're really excited about how kind of festive ‘66 Artists on 66’ is as a result of everyone's creativity,” she said.

The Trust also inspired people like Beth Buenger and her husband to travel Route 66. 

“We started in California at Santa Monica, and we're going all the way to Chicago. 2,448 miles,” she said.

Buenger is co-owner of a historic tire shop and automotive business in Granite City, Illinois and is part of a caravan of Route 66 enthusiasts. She and her husband recently stopped in Gallup to witness a 72-ounce steak-eating contest conducted by the Big Texan, a restaurant based in Amarillo, Texas.

Actor, director and producer Ryan Begay, who stars in AMC’s “Dark Winds,” was one of the featured contestants. 

He was asked by one of the restaurant’s representatives during their YouTube live stream of the event what it meant to be participating in Gallup as one of the contest stops during the 100th anniversary of Route 66.

“It’s such a great community. It’s wonderful to see everybody always come out for these events, even for myself. I’ve kind of been away for very long, so it nice really to come back and see everybody come out,” said Begay.

Vendors also were invited to set up shop in the Courthouse Square. One of those vendors, Martin O’Malley from the 9th Street Gallup Flea Market, talked about his artisan shirts.

“There's different symbols here that are recognizable. This represents a lot of the native food that's sold out there and a t-shirt made out of the Bluebird Flour sack, Navajo tea, tamales. That could be stew or blue corn mush. These are multi-colored corn earrings,” O’Malley described.   

All summer and through the fall, celebrations will continue for the centennial of Route 66. 

NOTE: Reed Black is an intern with the New Mexico Local News Fellowships and Internships Program, which places emerging journalists in newsrooms like KGLP’s across New Mexico.

Learn more at www.newmexicolocalnewsfellowships.org. 

The Navajo Nation Museum in Window Rock, Arizona will host the Uranium Film Festival on Thursday, November 13th and Friday, November 14, 2025, from 10am until 7pm.

KGLP's Calvin Gleason speaks with one of the organizers, Norman Patrick Brown.

The event flyer is available at: https://img1.wsimg.com/isteam/ip/648e40c3-d44c-47f5-bec6-8a52b8595c41/UraniumFilmFestRevWinRock1113n111425.png/:/cr=t:0%25,l:0%25,w:100%25,h:100%25/rs=w:984,h:1230

    This podcast includes audio recorded on October 23, 2025, of the Gallup Mayoral and City Council Candidate Forum.

    Several of the candidates have submitted written introductions and/or full answers to the questions asked that night, since the event answers were limited to 2 minutes.  Those PDFs are at: https://kglp.org/gallup-candidates-details.

    Early voting continues until November 1^st, with Election Day on Tuesday, November 4^th. 2025.  Citizens can call the Bureau of Elections at 800-245-1771 to find out where to vote or get answers to any questions about the voting process.

KGLP's Calvin Gleason and Rachel Kaub speak with attendees at the October 18, 2025 No Kings rallies in Window Rock, Arizona and in Gallup, New Mexico.

KGLP's Strider Brown speaks with Ft. Defiance resident Lenny Foster about his activism, recent communications with Leonard Peltier since his release to home confinement, and more, on the July 28, 2025 Deer Tracks show.

KGLP's Calvin Gleason speaks with some of the protesters at July 17, 2025 "Good Trouble" rally in Gallup, one of many U.S. gatherings that honored the late Representative and Civil Rights figure, John Lewis.