Soap Lake's healing waters studied more closely
John Glassco holds up a water sample taken from Soap Lake in 1959 by Dr. W. T. Edmundson. These are believed to be the only remaining samples of Soap Lake that were taken before it was dilluted by irrigation water.
SOAP LAKE - A longtime resident is one step closer to solving the mystery of Soap Lake.
John Glassco's life mission has been to preserve and research the healing waters of Soap Lake. The Soap Lake Conservancy Board chairman recently passed along the only water samples taken from the lake before irrigation water diluted it to researchers. They hope to measure the mineral levels and find out what made it a mecca for those seeking relief from pain and inflammation.
"As the lake changes, there is no way to form a baseline," Glassco said. "This is our baseline," he says holding up a sample marked Nov. 12, 1959.
Author and researcher Dr. W. T. Edmundson collected the samples from the 1950s to the 1990s. Like Glassco, he loved Soap Lake and devoted tireless efforts to collect data about what made the lake so unique.
His efforts met an abrupt end when he died in a traffic accident before he concluded his work.
"At that point, his researchers called the Soap Lake Conservancy and told us that they wanted us to have these samples,' Glassco said. This occurred in 2005, and caught the tiny conservation group off guard.
"We didn't really have any place to put them. We knew they had to be undisturbed and should be kept in the dark," he said. "We don't have a university or research facility here that could take them, but we knew that these samples were quite significant to the science community."
Glassco said they considered stashing them in someone's basement, but that did not seem very secure.
Then someone suggested storing the 20 or so boxes of samples at the McKay Health Center and Rehab facility.
"That really made the most sense to us," he said.
So they asked permission to store the samples in the "dungeon-like setting" of McKay's basement.
McKay Administrator Samuel Van Meter said it was a perfect fit.
"This facility was built by the state of Washington to study people with ailments like Buerger's Disease," he said. People flocked to Soap Lake in the 1920s and 1930s to seek relief from Buerger's, a disease that causes inflammation and clotting in arteries and vessels.
After almost 10 years collecting dust in the basement, researchers from Western Washington University and Central Washington University are bringing the Nalgene water bottle samples to their labs to measure the mineral levels.
It will take up to two years to collect and record data from the samples, WWU researcher Leo Bodensteiner said. He and other researchers will use modern techniques, not available when Dr. Edmundson was around, he said.
As Bodensteiner and CWU Geology Professor Anthony Gabriel opened and began examining the samples, they commented on the tremendous care that Dr. Edmundson took when collecting the samples.
"(Edmundson) may have been a little obsessive about his water samples," Bodensteiner said. "To him these are like a fine wine," he said.
Glassco and Soap Lake Conservancy board member Gene Wing were at the rehabilitation center to oversee the transfer of water samples. Glassco was excited the scientific data will get a proper home in a research setting. He said this is exactly what he and Soap Lake Conservancy members have been waiting for, these one of a kind scientific treasures to be treated like the gems that they are.
He said Soap Lake, which was created during the last Ice Age, continues to surprise residents and researchers.
Bodensteiner and Gabriel said they would share the results with Glassco as soon as they are available.