Award of three contracts totaling $152,508 on the Navajo and Hopi Indian Reservations in Arizona, and the Navajo Reservation in New Mexico, for water drilling and water-storage development facilities was announced today by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Water development at the contract locations is necessary to sustain present schools and facilities and to determine feasibility of additional school facilities planned at these locations.
At Tuba City--approximately seventy miles north of Flagstaff, Arizona--the Tuba City Sub-Agency, boarding school, and Public Health Service Hospital will benefit from the construction of a 250,000 -gallon elevated water-storage tank. The new facilities will be adequate for a population of 2,500. The Bureau of Indian Affairs anticipates the population will reach approximately this number if school facilities materialize as planned. Demolition of the existing tank and the connecting of existing water mains to the new storage facility are also included in the contract. The $62,880 contract was awarded to the Chicago Bridge &Iron Company, of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Under a $66,823 contract, Cowley Brothers, of Saint Johns, Arizona, will carry out water exploration and development at or in the vicinity of the following locations:
Lukachukai, Arizona, approximately 70 miles north of Window Rock, Arizona;
Keams Canyon, Arizona, approximately 70.miles north of Holbrook, Arizona;
Polacca, Arizona, approximately 13 miles west of Keams Canyon, Arizona;
Oraibi, Arizona, approximately 33 miles west of Keams Canyon, Arizona;
White Horse Lake, New Mexico, approximately 25 miles east of Crownpoint, New Mexico; and
Pueblo Pintado, New Mexico, approximately 40 miles northeast of Crownpoint, New Mexico.
B &W Drilling Company, of Borger, Texas, was the successful bidder with a low bid of $22,805 for a water-drilling and development contract at Crownpoint, New Mexico, approximately 50 miles northeast of Gallup, New Mexico.
The water-drilling and development contracts provide for wells at specified depths ranging from 250 feet to 2,300 feet.
