TERLINGUA — Deep within the Big Bend National Park region, tension between local residents and developers over water supply looms.
Once a recluse’s paradise, tourism has tripled since 2018 in Terlingua, a desert community of no more than 400 full-time residents. Formerly vacant mountainsides are now ornamented with glamorous camping structures: round, see-through domes, tipis and A-frames. Thousands of visitors book these short-term rentals for their remoteness, proximity to the park grounds and access to the largest dark sky reserve in the nation. Residents and local businesses — coffee shops, bars and restaurants — navigate the frenzy.
They also grapple with the soaring demand the tourism industry has for water in a place where locals are accustomed to conserving every trickle, fearing drought or the day a water well no longer pumps water — a place the Texas Water Development Board, the agency administering the state’s water supply and preparedness, has limited information about.
The tension in Terlingua over water offers a window into a statewide problem: fast-growing Texas is struggling to keep up with the demand for water and update the infrastructure to carry that water to residents.
In a special report from The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit news organization that covers policy and politics, that will be republished in The Big Bend Sentinel, you’ll be introduced to residents, long-time business owners and entrepreneurs who are leading the tourism boom and learn how the debate is unfolding.
“We’ve got more people than we have water for,” said Rick Bradbury, who owns a water hauling business.