Frustrated residents of the Wharton’s Dock area have raised concerns over ongoing water outages, while officials from the SouthWest Water Company (SWWC) state they are actively working on the issue with planned upgrades to the water main.
“Pervasive drought and freezing temperatures can cause ground shifts and result in increased main breaks,” said Karen Cotton, vice president of communications for SWWC. “Our team endeavors to isolate any break, reducing the total number of customers impacted.”
But residents remain doubtful of a long-term solution, citing regular outages that have spanned years.
“I have lived here since 2019,” said Gloria Richardson, who lives down Wharton’s Dock Road, “Because we had so many outages, I started keeping up with the Water Company Notices of Outage Emails since 2024. 14 outages in 2024, 8 in 2025, and 12 this year.”
Richardson also noted that residents had experienced the first water outage without any notification from SWWC this year.
“I called them and I was told the reason they turned mine off was because I was dripping my faucet in the daytime which isn’t allowed here, only during the night,” she said. “Note the fact that the high one day was 20 degrees and night was 17 degrees with a promise to turn it back on, but over 24 hours after the request still was a no show, so a kindly neighbor came over and turned it back on for me.”
Frustrated with SWWC’s alleged delayed responses, residents created a “home base” at Bandera’s Trump Store to donate and collect water jugs.
“I don’t remember how many times where we’ve collected water for the people,” Trump Store owner Wyatt Forster said. “I just put ads up to get people to donate, and I will continue to as long as the people need it.”
But Cotton assures residents that more upgrades are coming and cited several already completed upgrades: An AMI meter installation which provides real-time water use data and can identify leaks; A second well-constructed at Lake Medina Shores to increase capacity; A water tanker purchased to haul water during emergencies; An additional water storage tank installed to increase storage capacity; Backup generators installed to support continued operation during power outages.
Further planned upgrades include an additional constructed water supply well, and another water pressure storage tank to add to the system's capacity and reliability.
“We want to thank our customers in Bandera County for their support and patience as we worked to complete the recent repair caused by a resident hitting our water main,” Cotton said. “Our valued customers can stay informed by signing up for alerts in our online customer portal at account.mywater.us.”
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