Head of LCRA Announces Resignation

Becky Motal, the general manager of the Lower Colorado River Authority, announced Wednesday that she will retire at the end of this year. 

Motal has headed the authority, which manages the lower Colorado River basin and supplies water and power to more than a million Texans, since July 2011. Her tenure has spanned a record-breaking drought, historic wildfires and heated disputes over access to dwindling water reserves. She spearheaded the sale of LCRA’s retail water and wastewater systems and settled a $1.2 billion lawsuit with the San Antonio Water System over a multibillion-dollar water-sharing contract. Under her leadership, LCRA underwent a cost-cutting reorganization, reducing the workforce by about 500 people.

Motal and the LCRA have pledged to add 100,000 acre-feet of new water supply by 2017 and have plans for a new reservoir in Wharton County.

Motal was the first female LCRA general manager. Board chairman Tim Timmerman said the river authority has begun the process to name her replacement.