Ripple Effect: A Podcast Putting Water In Context
Oct 2, 2026 · 46 min · 15 segments
Send us Fan Mail Lindsie Smith, Executive Director of Great Salt Lake Alliance, and Hannah Freeze, the newly appointed Commissioner for Great Salt Lake, join us to unpack the Great Salt Lake…
And that sort of effort is exciting, but also to Hannah's point, we can create duplication.
When we're not all understanding what each other is doing, fragmentation can cause issues.
So the alliance was created to really step into the space, take an overview of what's happening, where can we be of most use to help reduce fragmentation, to help the commissioner's office and our partners working in the space to move forward solutions in a conducive way.
So the area in which we have really found Our lane is around water innovation and ecosystem building.
So there is incredible work happening across the state from our universities to our state agencies to entrepreneurs but there isn't always a mechanism to help them connect and talk to each other around tools and solutions and we already have great tools in the toolbox but we know that this is a long-term issue when it comes to water in the west so we need to keep iterating and innovating so we are a catalyst and a convener for water innovation And that can mean anything from new tech to how we think about behavior change to moving forward new ideas.
And we consider ourselves, again, to be sort of that connective tissue to help pull folks together so that we can have conversations and not duplicate efforts and move forward the most promising solutions.
And I think, you know, being in the space and having, you know, spent the last 18 months really kind of focused heavily on Great Salt Lake discussions, I think there is this kind of public I'm going to call it angst.
I know that's kind of a negative word, but like, who's doing what? Who's where then? What's how? What's going on? There's a lot of noise.
And I have to say, like, I do feel like we are now starting kind of a new chapter where we're starting to see a lot of the entities that we've set up both statutorily really get underway, like the commissioner's office, the Great Salt Lake Watershed Enhancement Trust.
But also now we're starting to kind of see the private side of that ecosystem you're discussing start to coalesce and start to kind of have all these groups that have been working in the space and recognizing the Great Salt Lake as an issue kind of define their lanes and kind of figure out what they're doing.
And so I think that like even six months ago, the conversation is different than it was six months ago.
And I think the solutions exchange here today will be kind of, you know, like a good way to kind of provide some examples of that.
Okay, well with that then, maybe we should move into our discussion for the day.
So we're extensively talking about the Great Salt Lake Solutions Exchange report, which is kind of the findings of this workshop that happened earlier this year during the summer.
But can you guys maybe give us the background of kind of like what was the Great Salt Lake Solutions Exchange? Kind of what was the impetus for this? What was the goal? And then maybe let's talk about the workshop itself, and then we'll move into kind of the report and some of its findings.
And that sort of effort is exciting, but also to Hannah's point, we can create duplication.
When we're not all understanding what each other is doing, fragmentation can cause issues.
So the alliance was created to really step into the space, take an overview of what's happening, where can we be of most use to help reduce fragmentation, to help the commissioner's office and our partners working in the space to move forward solutions in a conducive way.
So the area in which we have really found Our lane is around water innovation and ecosystem building.
So there is incredible work happening across the state from our universities to our state agencies to entrepreneurs but there isn't always a mechanism to help them connect and talk to each other around tools and solutions and we already have great tools in the toolbox but we know that this is a long-term issue when it comes to water in the west so we need to keep iterating and innovating so we are a catalyst and a convener for water innovation And that can mean anything from new tech to how we think about behavior change to moving forward new ideas.
And we consider ourselves, again, to be sort of that connective tissue to help pull folks together so that we can have conversations and not duplicate efforts and move forward the most promising solutions.
And I think, you know, being in the space and having, you know, spent the last 18 months really kind of focused heavily on Great Salt Lake discussions, I think there is this kind of public I'm going to call it angst.
I know that's kind of a negative word, but like, who's doing what? Who's where then? What's how? What's going on? There's a lot of noise.
And I have to say, like, I do feel like we are now starting kind of a new chapter where we're starting to see a lot of the entities that we've set up both statutorily really get underway, like the commissioner's office, the Great Salt Lake Watershed Enhancement Trust.
But also now we're starting to kind of see the private side of that ecosystem you're discussing start to coalesce and start to kind of have all these groups that have been working in the space and recognizing the Great Salt Lake as an issue kind of define their lanes and kind of figure out what they're doing.
And so I think that like even six months ago, the conversation is different than it was six months ago.
And I think the solutions exchange here today will be kind of, you know, like a good way to kind of provide some examples of that.
Okay, well with that then, maybe we should move into our discussion for the day.
So we're extensively talking about the Great Salt Lake Solutions Exchange report, which is kind of the findings of this workshop that happened earlier this year during the summer.
But can you guys maybe give us the background of kind of like what was the Great Salt Lake Solutions Exchange? Kind of what was the impetus for this? What was the goal? And then maybe let's talk about the workshop itself, and then we'll move into kind of the report and some of its findings.
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