Dear NUSEL colleagues:

Forgive me for writing too frequently, but given all of the activity surrounding NUSEL, I felt I should try to keep you up to date.

To demonstrate that we have not lost our sense of humor, one collaboration member has suggested a new interpretation of NUSEL - the National Underwater Science and Engineering Laboratory. Another suggests our situation is fluid.

The decision by Barrick to flood the mine was very regretable, in our view. The water is now at 1.5 ft in the 8000 ft level, and slowly rising. It will be some time -- estimates range up to two years - before it reaches our deep laboratory level of 7400 ft. Before that time, however, ventilation will be shut off in the lower portions of the mine.

It does appear that some important steps were taken in the meeting that was held last week between Barrick and the various South Dakota politicians. As the flooding started, Barrick took steps to "mothball" both the No. 6 and No. 4 Winzes. These are the two Winzes we need for access to the 7400 ft level. In their original plan to turn off the pump, we do not believe any such steps were planned. In addition, according to an interview that appeared this morning in the South Dakota newspapers, Gov. Rounds described very substantial progress made in discussions with Barrick these past two weeks. The Governor is hopeful that an agreement can be reached very soon, perhaps by summer's end. If this were to happen, it opens many possibilities for moving ahead on NUSEL.

Given NSF's commitment to NUSEL-Homestake, we have concluded we should give the new governor a chance. I hope most of you feel similarly. We are putting together the last few pages of the Reference Design Project Book. We have discussed with our engineers how to respond to the flooding. We intend to add to the Reference Design a short amendment (Plan A and Plan B) describing how flooding could be addressed. Plan A assumes that we can dewater soon; Plan B assumes a longer delay. More on these later.

After this, the Executive Committee plans no further work: we will be ahead of both the site process and the NSF. We understand the NSF is planning a "stakeholder" meeting on Homestake later this summer. Optimists can envision this happening at about the time the governor gets his desired agreement with Barrick.

Wick Haxton