Grand Coulee on through and beyond Quincy Basin. The Ephrata Fan is a gravel fan formed when floodwaters from the lower Grand Coulee entered the Quincy Basin during the formation of the Scablands. The area surrounding the Grand Coulee is shrub-steppe habitat, with an average annual rainfall of less than . The Lower Grand Coulee contains Park, Blue, Alkali, Lenore, and Soap lakes. Until recently, the Upper Coulee was dry. The Columbia Basin Project changed this in 1952, using the ancient river bed as an irrigation distribution network. The Upper Grand Coulee was dammed and turned into Banks Lake. The lake is
Coulee Coulee </div> Coulee, or coulée ( or ) is a term applied rather loosely to different landforms, all of which refer to a kind of valley or drainage zone. The word "coulee" comes from the Canadian French "coulée", from the French word "couler" meaning "to flow". The term is often used interchangeably in the Great Plains for any number of water features, from ponds to creeks. In southern Louisiana the word "coulée" (also spelled "coolie") originally meant a gully or ravine usually dry or intermittent but becoming sizable during rainy weather. As stream channels were dredged or canalized, the term