diff --git a/docker/Dockerfile.ngen b/docker/Dockerfile.ngen
index ea82b795..7d08bd1f 100644
--- a/docker/Dockerfile.ngen
+++ b/docker/Dockerfile.ngen
@@ -63,6 +63,7 @@ ARG REPO_URL \
     NGEN_ACTIVATE_PYTHON="ON" \
     NGEN_NETCDF_ACTIVE="ON" \
     NGEN_ROUTING_ACTIVE="ON" \
+    NGEN_WITH_SQLITE="ON" \
     NGEN_UDUNITS_ACTIVE="ON" \
     NGEN_UDUNITS_QUIET="ON" \
     BUILD_NGEN_SERIAL="true" \
@@ -130,6 +131,7 @@ RUN cd ${WORKDIR}/ngen \
         -DBMI_FORTRAN_ACTIVE:BOOL=${NGEN_ACTIVATE_FORTRAN} \
         -DNGEN_ACTIVATE_PYTHON:BOOL=${NGEN_ACTIVATE_PYTHON} \
         -DNGEN_ACTIVATE_ROUTING:BOOL=${NGEN_ROUTING_ACTIVE} \
+        -DNGEN_WITH_SQLITE:BOOL=${NGEN_WITH_SQLITE} \
         -DUDUNITS_ACTIVE:BOOL=${NGEN_UDUNITS_ACTIVE} \
         -DUDUNITS_QUIET:BOOL=${NGEN_UDUNITS_QUIET} \
         -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=${WORKDIR} \
@@ -147,6 +149,7 @@ RUN cd ${WORKDIR}/ngen \
         -DBMI_FORTRAN_ACTIVE:BOOL=${NGEN_ACTIVATE_FORTRAN} \
         -DNGEN_ACTIVATE_PYTHON:BOOL=${NGEN_ACTIVATE_PYTHON} \
         -DNGEN_ACTIVATE_ROUTING:BOOL=${NGEN_ROUTING_ACTIVE} \
+        -DNGEN_WITH_SQLITE:BOOL=${NGEN_WITH_SQLITE} \
         -DUDUNITS_ACTIVE:BOOL=${NGEN_UDUNITS_ACTIVE} \
         -DUDUNITS_QUIET:BOOL=${NGEN_UDUNITS_QUIET} \
         -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=${WORKDIR} \
diff --git a/docker/Dockerfile.ngen-deps b/docker/Dockerfile.ngen-deps
index 37331530..1fbb479f 100644
--- a/docker/Dockerfile.ngen-deps
+++ b/docker/Dockerfile.ngen-deps
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ ARG REPO_URL=https://github.com/NOAA-OWP/ngen.git \
 #    netcdf-cxx4-devel netcdf-cxx4-mpich-devel netcdf-fortran-devel netcdf-fortran-mpich-devel \
 #    hdf5 hdf5-devel hdf5-mpich hdf5-mpich-devel \
 #    bzip2 expat expat-devel flex bison udunits2 udunits2-devel"
-    ROCKY_NGEN_DEPS_REQUIRED="sudo gcc gcc-c++ make cmake tar git gcc-gfortran libgfortran \
+    ROCKY_NGEN_DEPS_REQUIRED="sudo gcc gcc-c++ make cmake tar git gcc-gfortran libgfortran sqlite sqlite-devel \
     python3 python3-devel python3-pip gdal gdal-devel\
     bzip2 expat expat-devel flex bison udunits2 udunits2-devel zlib-devel" \
 # TODO: removed texinfo from list because it couldn't be found; make sure this doesn't lead to issues