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4/4/2024
A recent Rail Talk blog on BNSF Railway Co.'s website describes how the water issues of the Navajo Nation in New Mexico inspired a BNSF water-by-rail solution.
In the arid high desert, water is scarce, especially in the eastern Navajo Nation, wrote staff writer Susan Green. Many homes on the reservation have no running water. A pipeline or wells were not the solution. Another option had to be found.
Drew Halter had railroad experience, including freight car maintenance and operations. He suggested moving the water by train. He is now president of Jacob’s Well, named for a sacred site in the Bible. He hopes to turn it into a nonprofit.
The source for the water is in Helena, Mississippi. Tank cars loaded with 21,000 gallons of water are moved west to Amory, Mississippi, where BNSF picks them up and moves them approximately 1,200 miles to a spur at Thoreau, New Mexico. Navajo Nation families then either come to the mission to collect water or the mission trucks it to their homes.
Read the full story here.