View from Lone Rock on what used to have water around it on the Great Salt Lake on Monday, July 13, 2026. With fundamental policies in place (and more to come), Utah should now measure every Great Salt Lake action by how much additional water it puts in the lake. Great Salt Lake, the terminus of the regional hydrologic system, responds to depletion. In the long term, Great Salt Lake will improve only if we reduce upstream depletion. Hannah Freeze, Utah’s new Great Salt Lake commissioner , has an unusual opportunity to make depletion accounting the lake’s new strategy.