By McKenzie Romero | Editor
Two women have risen through the ranks of their state agencies to now help shape Utah’s response to the drying Great Salt Lake.
Speaking to lawmakers this week before they were confirmed by the Utah Senate, Hannah Freeze, the new Great Salt Lake commissioner, and Jamie Barnes, who now leads the Department of Natural Resources, both emphasized the need for long-term strategies to rehabilitate the lake and to help Utahns live in harmony with it.
In today’s Dispatch we update you on the two women with their eyes on the lake, a plan from the Centennial State to conserve water for the Colorado River, and the bipartisan bill that would set national rules for paying college athletes.
“I couldn’t be happier to get the opportunity to be the quarterback and pull our many interested stakeholders into the Great Salt Lake huddle.” — Hannah Freeze, now confirmed as Great Salt Lake commissioner, speaking to members of a Utah Senate committee before their vote.
Great Salt Lake Commissioner Hannah Freeze and Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Jamie Barnes are pictured at the Utah Capitol on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (Annie Knox/Utah News Dispatch)
By Annie Knox
A former program manager in the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food’s water optimization program and a farmer herself, Hannah Freeze said she’s built trust and relationships with farmers around the state. She wants to further develop collaboration with philanthropic groups, in addition to working with federal officials to secure the $1 billion President Donald Trump proposed for the lake.
Jamie Barnes served as Utah’s state forester before the promotion, but also has a background in the department examining policy and issues relating to mineral extraction and to rivers and lakes, including the Great Salt Lake. She said the focus now is on managing a rock barrier separating the lake’s north and south arms to control salinity, stabilizing the ecosystem and managing dust.
Hay bales lie in pastures near Stagecoach Reservoir in Routt County on Aug. 17, 2026. (Photo by Chase Woodruff/Colorado Newsline)
COLORADO NEWSLINE
By Chase Woodruff
Colorado water officials said they’re willing to launch a new state-run conservation program that would chip in to address system-wide shortages in the Colorado River Basin — but not without more certainty from the federal government, and possibly the state Legislature, about how the program would work.
The program aims to reduce water use during the 2027 “water year,” which will officially begin Oct. 1. Funding provided by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation would pay for fallowing, deficit irrigation, crop-switching and other conservation projects that would be approved by the Colorado Water Conservation Board and the federal government before the spring runoff begins next year.
Fans cheer on the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska. (Photo by Aaron Sanderford/Nebraska Examiner)
DC BUREAU
By Shauneen Miranda
A bipartisan bill moving through the U.S. Senate would set national standards for college athletes’ compensation, provide certain antitrust protections to the NCAA, establish a five-year eligibility timeline for athletes and bar professional athletes from competing in college athletics.
But critics argue the measure, which is notably neutral on the classification of athletes as employees, would undermine the labor rights of college players. It marks a major attempt to combat many of the problems facing the college sports landscape, which continues to wrestle with the fallout of the NCAA’s guidelines in 2021 allowing athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness.
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