A photo of Soap Lake

Soap Lake gets its name from the highly alkaline salt concentration of the water. The water is too salty to support fish, but does support brine shrimp. The water has a soapy feel, and choppy waves generated on windy days produce a soapy froth along the shore of the lake. Soap Lake is the terminal basin of the stream system draining the Grand Coulee. The evaporation due to the arid conditions of central Washington concentrates the salts in this lake that does not have a surface outlet. Clay sediments in the lakebed impede the flow of lake water into groundwater system (Jones, 2009, Kalas, 2010).