Science reveals potential of Soap Lake

Researchers find area has scientific, commercial benefits

SOAP LAKE — During Monday's daylong science conference at the Masquers Theater, researchers who have been studying Soap Lake for the last three years revealed their findings.

Speakers described the lake as a rich environment with a largely unknown and possibly unlimited potential for scientific and commercial use.

Dr. Anthony Gabriel of Central Washington University, who studied the limnology of the meromictic lake, which has two distinct water layers that do not mix, found a body of water with unusual properties that is of great scientific interest.

Gabriel said that both potential medicinal and industrial uses may exist because of the chemical makeup of the lake and the rare organisms found in its depths.

Various management options could be implemented that would slow further degradation over time according to Gabriel, which was shown to be occurring through this research to protect the resource for the future.

Dr. Holly Pinkart from CWU studied the genetic diversity and physiology of the different organisms in the lake.

In the process of looking at what organisms are present in the lake and what they are doing, Pinkart found that some are able to live and flourish in the extreme conditions of the lake.

The scientific implication is that there are a variety of potential uses and applications that are now known to exist.

"You've got this resource where you can find organisms that don't live anywhere else. Can we make a profit from it today? Maybe not," said Pinkart. "However, there might be some compound in there that may turn out to be a good cancer-fighting agent."

Pinkart said the lake has a wealth of scientific information in it and emphasized that proper management was necessary to maintain it.

"Somebody mentioned the rain forest today and I think that's a good analogy. When you lose it, because that's eventual, it's going to happen, you lose all that diversity and information," Pinkart said.

Twenty years from now, an environmental problem may begin to emerge which has never been seen before and was not anticipated by science, Pinkart said.

"One of these organisms might hold the key. If you throw it away, you'll never know."

Kathi Trantham, owner of Healing Water Spa in Soap Lake, said she was excited about some of the research that has been done so far on the lake. She hopes that with continued study some scientific research will eventually support or prove the medical effectiveness that Soap Lake has mysteriously had over the years.

"It would be important if some study results eventually showed that there are medical uses," Trantham said.