This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

An 18-wheeler truck working for the Concan Water Supply Corp. hauls drinking water across the nearly dry Frio River in Concan on Aug. 10. Drought has caused most of the wells for the community’s public water supply to go dry and put it at risk of running out of water in 45 days, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality website.

A pickup truck pulls a water tank across the nearly dry Frio River in Concan on Aug. 10. Restrictions imposed by the Concan Water Supply Corp. to reduce water use have forced customers to find other sources of water for nonessential uses, such as filling swimming pools. Drought has caused most of the wells for the community’s public water supply to go dry and put it at risk of running out of water in 45 days, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality website.

The Concan Water Supply Corp. has been trucking water continuously from a still-producing well several miles away to this public drinking water tank farm to keep water flowing to this side of town where the well is producing a fraction of its normal volume of water. Drought has caused most of the wells for the community’s public water supply to go dry and put it at risk of running out of water in 45 days, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality website.

A water tanker truck delivers potable water to a Concan Water Supply Corp. public drinking water tank farm on Aug. 10 in Concan.

Frio River Vacation Homes co-owner Dwynette Meadows, pictured in her office on Aug. 10, talks about how residents and visitors are dealing with the water shortages in Concan.

Joseph McKiernan, a field operator for Concan Water Supply Corp., talks on Aug. 10 about improvements the utility is making to ensure it can continue supplying water to Concan customers.

Truck driver Allen Ramirez, left, talks on Aug. 10 with Concan Water Supply Corp. manager Dick Earnest while Ramirez’s truck’s 7,000-gallon tank fills with drinking water.

A water truck drives through Concan on Aug. 10 as it delivers nonpotable water to area homes. Drought has caused most of the wells for Concan Water Supply Corp. to go dry and put it at risk of running out of water in 45 days, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality website. Emergency limits on water use have forced area homeowners — many of whom use their homes as vacation rentals — to find alternate ways to keep swimming pools full. Meanwhile, Concan Water Supply has been trucking water continuously from a still-producing well to public drinking water tank farms several miles away where wells are producing a fraction of their normal volumes.

A tanker truck delivers potable water to a Concan Water Supply Corp. public drinking water tank farm on Aug. 10. The utility is has been trucking water continuously, seven days per week, from a still-producing well several miles away to this tank farm to keep water flowing to this side of town where the well is producing a fraction of its normal volume. Drought has caused most of the wells for the community’s public water supply to go dry and put the utility at risk of running out of water in 45 days, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality website.

Every morning since late June, Allen Ramirez has been part of a continuous trucking operation to keep water flowing for the people of Concan, a small town about 85 miles west of San Antonio.

Getting to work by 7 a.m., Ramirez pumps about 7,000 gallons from a groundwater well into an 18-wheeler that he then drives about 6 miles across town to four 50,000-gallon tanks. Then he pumps the truck’s contents into them. Filling the truck takes 45 minutes to an hour, and pumping it out takes another hour.

He then repeats the process for the rest of his workday, as does co-worker Douglas Pena in another truck. Both are contracted drivers hired by the Concan Water Supply Corp. Together, they fill the tanks eight to 10 times a day.

If either man falls behind, or a truck breaks down, or they interrupt their route for any reason, the tanks run the risk of drying up, leaving more than half the town without drinking water.

“This is about all we can do right now,” said Dick Earnest, general manager of Concan Water Supply. “We’re just keeping up with the water demand, but we have to do it constantly or we’ll run out.”

On ExpressNews.com: Frio River flow drops to zero as drought continues

Allen Ramirez checks the water level in his truck on Aug. 10. He and another truck driver hired by Concan Water Supply Corp. fill 7,000-gallon tanks with water from a well in Concan and use it to fill water tanks in other parts of the small town, repeating the process continuously. Drought has caused most of the wells for the community’s public water supply to go dry and put it at risk of running out of water in 45 days, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality website.

Amid the drought gripping South Texas, five of the eight groundwater wells in Concan have gone dry, leaving only two producing wells and one barely functioning well to supply the town. Residents can no longer water their lawns or fill their swimming pools, and from midnight to 6 a.m., the water is shut off.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality uses the following terms to describe the severity of a community's water status:

• Emergency: Could be out of water in 45 days or less

• Priority: Could be out of water in 90 days or less

• Concern: Could be out of water in 180 days or less

• Watch: Has a supply of water greater than 180 days

Concan is emblematic of many Texas towns that are drying up and where water companies face decisions similar to those that Earnest has made. Months without rain and temperatures above 100 degrees have left most of South and Central Texas parched. Four towns, including Concan, have been designated by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality as suffering extreme shortage, meaning they’re at risk of running out of water in 45 days or less. Five towns are in priority shortage status, 13 are deemed concerning, and numerous others are being watched for possible water outage issues.

Concan Water Supply has so far spent $200,000 transporting water across town and is about to spend an additional half-million dollars to dig a new well that goes down about 1,500 feet into the Trinity Aquifer in search of water. But all its efforts are just acts of survival until the ultimate natural solution comes.

“The only way this gets better is if it rains,” Earnest said. “We’re all just hoping for rain. Without it, this is what we got to do.”

Concan is known mostly as a summer tourist town. Texans from all over the state come every year to swim and paddle in the Frio River and walk along the trees and bluffs at Garner State Park. For many, the spot is a family tradition, where generations of parents have taken their families to vacation. Even now, as the Frio River dries up, people continue to come to Concan to relax.

The turnout is smaller than last year, however. The usually packed swimming spots, parking lots and boutique vacation shops are a bit less visited. And tubing, which is the most popular activity on the Frio, is canceled for the summer because of low water levels.

Cassie Siegal, the river cleanup and digital marketing coordinator for Uvalde County, said this summer has been noticeably different. In the last two years, there were more visitors because of the appeal of nature during the COVID-19 pandemic and the flow in the river. This year, people are popping into the Concan Visitor Center to ask about the drinking water and dried-up river locations.

The public bathrooms at the Visitor Center are shut off because the pipes are connected to Concan Water Supply. Flushing would put more strain on the system. A new candy and ice cream shop near the center is also fed by that water supply, which is unavailable for about an hour whenever the contracted truck drivers tap the well to fill their tanks.

For businesses that have been in Concan longer, the water issue is less severe because they draw from their own groundwater systems. But those wells could be at risk of drying up as well without adequate conservation.

A sign on the Uvalde County Visitor Center building in Concan on Aug. 10 lets people know the restrooms in the building are closed due to water supply problems. The Concan Water Supply Corp. has been trucking water continuously from a still-producing well to public drinking water tank farms several miles away to keep water flowing to those parts of town.

At Neal’s Dining Room, a popular restaurant in Concan, manager Mitzy Santleben pours only small cups of water for customers to prevent waste.

“They’ll ask me for a big glass of water when they come in, and I just see how they do with a small one first,” Santleben said. “I mean, I’ll keep pouring again and again rather than see that water go down the drain.”

It’s just one of the measures big and small that people in Concan are taking to stretch their water supply as far as it will last.

Concan has about 200 year-round residents, but during the summer, thousands come and stay a few days to several weeks. It’s up to management and rental companies, Uvalde County and Concan Water Supply to inform newcomers about conservation standards.

Mostly, Earnest said, management companies do their part, but some show little or no interest in helping. And every day, the general manager gets multiple calls from visitors complaining about the water being shut off.

Meanwhile, Earnest practices what he preaches. At home, he sticks a hose in used bathwater to pump it through the bathroom window to water plants, and he dumps his dog’s water bowl into the birdbath. All water is recycled.

On ExpressNews.com: Catch and release: How the Bandera River Authority is saving fish from the drought

At Frio River Vacation Homes, co-owner Dwynette Meadows said most of her guests have been understanding about the water restrictions. Occasionally, she’ll get calls from upset visitors who get caught soapy in a shower when the water is turned off. But overall, she said, it’s been business as usual. Nearly all 47 rental homes have been booked every weekend.

Meadows and her husband, Mike, moved to Concan a year ago from Kingsville because they loved the area so much. Now, as Meadows answers calls at the vacation home headquarters, her husband drives water in a small tank from rental to rental, filling swimming pools. Because Concan Water Supply doesn’t allow residents to use its water to fill private pools, management companies must buy water elsewhere and truck it to Concan.

Because of the heat, pool water evaporates quickly, so it’s almost a daily job to maintain pool levels. But that doesn’t seem to bother the rental company too much.

“The whole town is doing its part to keep Concan up and running,” Meadows said. “We’re a community on this.”

A trickle of water can be seen in the nearly dry Frio River on Aug. 10 at the Third Crossing near Concan. The official U.S. Geological Survey water gauge for the river in Concan reported a flow of 0 cubic feet per second on that day.

When the summer vacation rush subsides, the water supply will be easier to manage with fewer people using it.

Droughts are not uncommon in Texas, said Lucas Gregory, associate director of the Texas Water Resources Institute at Texas A&M University, but they are intensified when demand exceeds supply.

“There’s not a world of resources in the Concan part of the state,” Gregory said. “The full-time population out there is not one that demands a large potable water supply, so I think the biggest challenge that complicates the water supply is that (Concan’s) water infrastructure can’t keep up with the demand of all these vacation properties. They can’t access it fast enough.”

The last time Concan went through such a severe drought was in 2011, but Earnest said it didn’t have to truck water or dig a new well back then. This year, however, with more vacation homes and visitors, the water dried up much faster.

On ExpressNews.com: ‘Resilience to drought’: EPA officials laud SAWS multisource facility

Concan is just beyond the Edwards Aquifer, leaving Concan Water Supply to tap shallow groundwater — 200 feet deep — with much less capacity than a system as massive as the Edwards. Below that shallow groundwater, however, is the Trinity Aquifer, which could provide much more water to Concan. Already, the company has one well tapping the Trinity, but the water is not potable.

The new Trinity well that the company plans to dig would be about 1,500 feet deep, and officials hope it will provide drinking water. Normally, obtaining a permit for a new groundwater well from the TCEQ could take up to six months, but because of Concan’s emergency status, the digging should start in a few weeks.

In the meantime, the 7,000-gallon trucks will continue their perpetual loops — from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week. And Concan residents must continue conserving water all night, while vacation rental companies keep trucking water to maintain swimming pool levels.

But Meadows, a woman of faith, said she’s not worried — not for next year or the year after that.

“God will never give us more than we can handle,” she said. “So we’re handling it.”

Elena Bruess writes for the Express-News through Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms. ReportforAmerica.org. elena.bruess@express-news.net

Elena Bruess joined the Express-News as the environment and water reporter in June 2021 through Report for America. Previously, she covered water issues for Circle of Blue in Michigan and wrote about COVID-19 in Chicago as a reporting fellow for the Pulitzer Center. She has a master's in science journalism from Northwestern University and a degree from the University of Iowa's undergraduate writing program. She is originally from northeastern Iowa, but also grew up in central Greece.