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The Water Values Podcast welcomes Phil Wilson, the General Manager and CEO of the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) in Texas, onto the show. Phil also is a former Texas Secretary of State and former Executive Director of the Texas Department of Transportation. Phil addresses the impact of the drought on the LCRA, infrastructure funding and P3 issues, the energy-water nexus and more in this interview. Phil does a great job explaining how LCRA is coping with the massive growth in Texas, while simultaneously experiencing record drought. This is another can’t-miss interview.
In this Session, You’ll Learn about:
- The LCRA’s history and massive geographic scope
- The infrastructure needed to keep up with the population growth in Texas
- The financial toolbox LCRA employs when analyzing infrastructure projects
- The impact of the drought on water supplies
- How LCRA is coping with the drought
- LCRA’s firm and interruptible classes of water customers
- Phil’s views on public-private partnerships (P3s) as a tool to finance water infrastructure projects
- Phil’s views on the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Investment Act (TIFIA) and how it might translate once the Water Infrastructure Finance and Investment Act (WIFIA) is implemented
- Water quality in Texas as a result of the drought
- LCRA’s use of water in power generation
Resources and Links Mentioned in or Relevant to this Session Include:
- Lower Colorado River Authority’s website
- Wikipedia page on Phil
- Articles on LCRA’s 2015 water rate increase here and here
- My blog post on WIFIA
- U.S. Drought Monitor webpage for Texas
- The Water Resources Reform and Development Act of 2014
- The Federal Highway Administration’s TIFIA webpage
Transcript
Click here to download the Transcript for Session 18 of The Water Values Podcast.
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