Lalena Weasel reaches 20-year milestone working for federal government
Lalena Weasel was once again awarded for her high standards of safety in the field, where she works with the Bureau of Reclamation in New Mexico as the Materials Engineer Technician on the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project. Weasel is also coming up on her twentieth anniversary as a federal employee, a position she has excelled at for the past two decades.
Weasel got her start in the field when construction of the Animas La Plata (ALP) project became a reality in the spring of 2003. Weasel was then able to use that opportunity to transition into a full-time position on a large-scale water project, dubbed the Navajo-Gallup water supply line, under the Bureau of Reclamation. The project opened four positions in 2011, which were available to tribal members from the Ute Mountain Ute and Southern Ute Indian Tribes; Weasel has ties to each tribe. She also shined in her years working with ALP, garnering numerous safety awards during her years on the project — including Safety Employee of the Year in 2009.
The Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project — once complete, will deliver water to the communities in the eastern section of the Navajo Nation, southwestern portion of the Jicarilla Apache Nation, and the city of Gallup, N.M., by way of roughly 300 miles of pipeline — transporting water from the San Juan River to those communities. The project also includes the construction of numerous pumping plants and water treatment facilities along the pipeline.
The scope of this project requires a massive amount of travel on the part of its employees, especially its lab technicians and inspectors. “Every fiscal year we turn in our milage … we drive a lot of miles,” Weasel said. “At the end of the month we total up our miles. We drive five to seven thousand miles in a month; working anywhere from 14–16-hour shifts with 2-hours from the work site back to Gallup.”
Working, and traveling, under those circumstances requires an aptitude for safety and precaution, which Weasel has proven time and time again, culminating in this year’s safety award from the Bureau of Reclamation.