DATE: Tue 25-Nov-2003

Leavenworth residents weigh in on lab: Reaction to national science project is mixed; more than 300 people attend meeting
By Dan Wheat, World staff writer

LEAVENWORTH - More than 300 people attended a meeting at Cascade High School Monday night on a proposal to build a $300 million national science laboratory under Mount Cashmere.

Proponents slightly outnumbered opponents, judging from applause for speakers, but more opponents spoke than proponents.

It was the first community meeting on the project since it became public on Oct. 31.

Wick Haxton, the University of Washington physics professor proposing the project, said he was pleased with the support and sees some criticisms as engineering challenges.

Haxton spent an hour explaining the project and another hour-and-a-half answering questions and responding to points made from both sides.

Opponents said they don't like the lab being located under the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. They're concerned about the noise and volume of trucks hauling tunnel tailings down Icicle Road, effects on water, and possible noise at tunnel entrances from the lab's ventilation system. They also said new jobs may put a bigger squeeze on Leavenworth's already limited affordable housing.

Proponents said potential advances in world science far outweigh adverse impacts. They said the project is the kind of environmentally clean economic boost Leavenworth has been looking for, dovetailing nicely with the town's tourism industry. They said it would increase local, state and national interest in science.

The National Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory, known as NUSEL, would do what Haxton describes as "cutting-edge" research in physics, astrophysics, earth science and geomicrobiology. Shielded from cosmic rays by being 6,000 feet underground, much of the lab's work would be in solar neutrinos to find out how stars make energy and explore the 96 percent of the universe we can't see.

Haxton hopes to get the Nusel Collaboration, a group of 100 scientists from around the nation, to propose Mount Cashmere to the National Science Foundation by year's end. Construction would take five years and probably wouldn't start until 2011.

The mountain is nine miles west of Leavenworth in the Icicle Valley.

Alan Moen, an Entiat Valley writer and artist, said drilling under a wilderness area sets a dangerous precedent.

"I don't think your project is compatible with wilderness. I think it should be done somewhere else," he said.

Haxton responded that setting such a precedent also bothers Western Washington environmental groups he met with last week and appears to be a substantial issue. But he said federal wilderness law specifies science as a wilderness use and that the surface wouldn't be disturbed. The lab would be under the wilderness but two three-mile tunnels and their entrances would not be.

Bill Schmidt, an Icicle Valley resident who lives close to the proposed tunnel entrances, said he initially was favorable but now believes "irreversible impacts" outweigh benefits. He told Haxton that he's underestimated the volume of rock to be hauled and that the cost is too high on "aesthetics, recreation and quality of life."

Schmidt said the entrance area has avalanches, mountain goats and just a few trees. If a fire sweeps through and takes out the trees, it would make the entrances visible. He said the project is well intentioned but could "spin out of control." He said the Icicle is too small and exquisite for a project of such magnitude.

Jack Mynatt, an Icicle resident, said he grew up in Tennessee and used to spend a lot of time in Gatlinburg, an "Appalachian Leavenworth." He said it was ruined by unrestrained tourism development.

"I'd rather have you for a neighbor than Dollywood," he told Haxton, referring to singer Dolly Parton's theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tenn.

Dan Wheat may be reached at 664-7150 or by e-mail at wheat@wenworld.com

-reprinted with permission of Wenatchee World

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DATE: Mon 17-Nov-2003

Science can work under a mountain
By Wick Haxton and John F. Wilkerson

For several years, the nation's leading physicists and earth scientists have advocated a National Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory to keep our nation at the forefront of scientific research. We recently raised the possibility of placing such a laboratory near Leavenworth, one of several potential sites under consideration. On Nov. 24, we will hold a public meeting in Leavenworth to discuss the proposed laboratory and its associated facilities. The meeting will be from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Cascade High School commons.

Why build such a laboratory? It will provide ultra-clean space, shielded from cosmic rays, where scientists can do research in physics, astrophysics, earth sciences, geomicrobiology and other fields. Such a laboratory could help develop new medicines, provide new tools for monitoring the environment, improve our understanding of how deep geology affects the Earth's surface, and help answer some of the deepest questions about the nature and origin of the universe. Similar, but shallower, laboratories already exist in Russia, Italy and Japan.

This is the current situation. Until recently, scientists involved in developing a national underground laboratory have focused on the Homestake Mine in South Dakota and Mount San Jacinto in California. But there are difficulties with both sites. An initial National Science Foundation evaluation found geologic problems at Mount San Jacinto. The NSF then named Homestake as its preferred site, but the mine's new owner recently turned off pumps that kept the lower levels dry. There now are 700,000 tons of water in the mine. The flooding, the removal of major mine-related infrastructure and questions about the owner's liability have raised serious questions about Homestake's status as a national underground laboratory site.

In response, physicists from the University of Minnesota have developed a proposal for an underground laboratory near the Soudan Mine in Minnesota. Like Homestake, this would be a vertical-access facility - that is, the entrance would be at the top and elevators would take people and equipment to research areas far below ground. Unlike Homestake, this facility would have to be built from scratch. A strength of the site is its proximity to the existing Soudan Mine, a shallow facility that already has a successful science program. A disadvantage is the vertical access, since horizontal access is more convenient for most experiments.

At the same time, University of Washington physicists conducted a national search for possible horizontal-access sites - that is, sites similar to Mount San Jacinto, where the laboratory would be placed at the end of a tunnel that is excavated under a mountain. As with existing laboratories in Italy, Russia and Japan, this design allows scientists to drive to the laboratory site, lowering the costs of operations and experiment construction. We believe Cashmere Mountain, near Icicle Creek, is the best site in the western United States for such a facility.

The University of Washington and the University of Minnesota are not competing with each other. In fact, these two universities were partners in writing the original proposals for Homestake. Both now have the same goal: to find a site in the United States where underground science can be done.

No proposal for Cashmere Mountain has been submitted yet. We are awaiting a final geotechnical report on this site. But if that report is favorable - and if the residents of Leavenworth and Chelan County are supportive - we are willing to make such a proposal to the National Science Foundation with the hope of bringing a world-class science and education facility here.

Haxton and Wilkerson are physics professors at the University of Washington.

-reprinted with permission of Wenatchee World

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DATE: Fri 14-Nov-2003

Science lab backers tout Mount Cashmere: But some environmentalists don't want it built in wilderness area, pledge to take issue to court
By Dan Wheat, World staff writer

LEAVENWORTH - So why is Mount Cashmere, the summit of which is inside the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, such a top choice for the biggest gee-whiz underground science lab being considered in the United States?

Certainly there must be some suitable area outside a wilderness area, say environmentalists like Rick McGuire, president of the Alpine Lakes Protection Society in Seattle.

But Mount Cashmere, nine miles west of Leavenworth, is the best site within the largest chunk of high quality granite in the country, says Wick Haxton, physics professor and head of Institute for Nuclear Theory at the University of Washington, who hopes to propose the site to the National Science Foundation.

Bob Johnson, of Orondo, wants to reactivate the Wenatchee chapter of the society to oppose the Mount Cashmere site. Johnson was the chapter's field trip chairman in the 1970s.

"Of all the places geologically, just in Chelan County, why is the boat being rocked for underground disruption of a wilderness area?" Johnson asks, adding that if it's chosen it will precipitate a very expensive process.

David Knibb, a Bellevue member of the society, has said he expects any decision to build a lab under Mount Cashmere will end up in court.

Mount Cashmere is within the Mount Stuart batholith, a large area of granite that's about 30-by-25 miles in size, Haxton said.

Granite is preferred because its uniform nonporous composition provides a dry environment and its strength reduces the need for structural support, Haxton said.

A depth of 6,000 feet is needed for cleanliness from dust and protection from cosmic rays, he said.

Horizontal access to a lab under such rock is preferred to vertical because it's easier and less expensive to develop and use, he said.

Mount Cashmere and Cannon Mountain, both up the Icicle Valley, are the only peaks within the batholith that can be accessed horizontally with reasonable tunnel lengths while maintaining the needed depth, Haxton said.

The steepness of the mountains is important because it means shorter tunnels, he said.

Mount Cashmere is better than Cannon Mountain because less of it is in the wilderness area, it's farther from the Leavenworth fault, its tunnels would be shorter and it needs no new roads or bridges, he said.

"We looked all over the U.S. for similar sites and few are comparable. And those have serious defects," Haxton said.

Mount San Jacinto near Palm Springs, Calif., is a granite peak that has been proposed but it's too close to the San Andreas fault and it can't be adequately surveyed geologically because it's a national monument, he said.

Mount Cashmere can be geologically tested by drilling two-inch-core samples on the eastern side since that side is outside the wilderness area, he said.

And the quality and dryness of the granite can be seen in the Cascade Tunnel, the longest railroad tunnel in North America near Stevens Pass, he said.

"Another thing really important is finding a site in a national forest where we don't have to build 20 miles of new road. No one wants to do that," Haxton said. "So the wonderful thing about this site is not only is the geology right but there's a strong bridge (Bridge Creek Campground bridge) and a road going right to where we want to go."

Haxton noted he's not environmentally insensitive. He said he's a member of the Sierra Club and has spent many days on the Snow Lakes, Chatter Creek and other trails in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness.

"From an environmental viewpoint," he said, "this site is clearly the right choice."

Dan Wheat may be reached
at 664-7150 or by e-mail at wheat@wenworld.com
***
Lab meeting
What: A closer look at two
possible Icicle Creek sites for
an underground science lab
When: 7 to 9 p.m. Nov. 24
Where: Cascade High School commons, Leavenworth

-reprinted with permission of Wenatchee World

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DATE: Wed 12-Nov-2003

Scientists dispute whether Icicle site best for lab
By Dan Wheat, World staff writer

LEAVENWORTH - Whether Mount Cashmere, nine miles west of Leavenworth, is the top site for a $300 million underground science lab, depends on which scientist you ask.

Wick Haxton, physics professor and head of the Institute for Nuclear Theory at the University of Washington, says it is. Haxton is drafting a conceptual proposal for the site.

But Marvin Marshak, professor of physics at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, who wrote a proposal for a site in that state, isn't so sure.

"Which one is tops depends on who you ask," Marshak said Tuesday. "I would say several are quite good. I would say more than one of them would meet the requirements for the lab. It may be that Cashmere Mountain is the top site. I just don't know enough about it."

Both Marshak and Haxton said they each have their own groups supporting their proposals within a larger national group of 100 scientists, known as the NUSEL Collaboration.

NUSEL is the National Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory, which the collaboration wants built somewhere in the United States within the next decade or two.

The lab would do "cutting-edge" research in physics, astrophysics, earth science and geomicrobiology - seeking to explore the 96 percent of the universe we can't see, study particles from the sun (solar neutrinos) that reveal stellar energy generation, examine microbial life deep underground and study the formation of minerals and hydrology inside the earth.

Such labs, about 20 years old, exist in Russia, Japan and Italy but this one would be newer and more technologically advanced, Haxton said.

Haxton was the NUSEL Collaboration's principal investigator for three years on the Homestake Mine site in the Black Hills of South Dakota. He said the South Dakota site is still officially the leading site since it was approved by a physics committee of the National Science Foundation. But he said the committee probably will withdraw its recommendation since the site was flooded in June.

Marshak said that hasn't happened yet but that "it's certainly not a plus for Homestake" to have its lead investigator, Haxton, preferring another site.

In June, Marshak proposed expanding an existing lab at the Soudan Mine in Minnesota. Haxton said the expansion involves digging deeper, down 6,000 feet near a mine.

He said he prefers Mount Cashmere because tunneling under it, providing horizontal access rather than vertical access into a mine, is less complicated and less expensive to operate.

Marshak said other viable sites include: Mount San Jacinto near Palm Springs, Calif.; the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (a radioactive waste repository) near Carlsbad, N.M.; and the Henderson Mine in Colorado. He said there are scientists who support each one. He said about 45 scientists signed onto the Soudan proposal, but that some of them may also support other proposals.

Haxton listed problems with the other sites. He said Mount San Jacinto is the only one where a conceptual proposal has been done. He said the National Science Foundation doesn't like Mount San Jacinto because it's too close to the San Andreas fault, rock can't be drilled to sample because the top of the mountain is a national monument and it would require two five-mile tunnels.

Haxton, planning to finish his Mount Cashmere proposal by the end of the year, then hopes to win NUSEL Collaboration backing for it and submit it to the National Science Foundation. He said he believes most NUSEL members will find Mount Cashmere's attributes attractive.

Any proposal has to win National Science Foundation approval and congressional funding, he said. Dan Wheat may be reached at 664-7150 or by e-mail at wheat@wenworld.com

***
Lab meeting
What: University of Washington professors Wick Haxton and John Wilkerson explain their ideas about building an underground science lab in the Icicle Valley.
Where: Cascade High School commons, Leavenworth
When: 7 to 9 p.m. Nov. 24

-reprinted with permission of Wenatchee World

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DATE: Mon 03-Nov-2003

Bullitt backs deep lab: Environmentalist is excited over proposed $300 million underground laboratory
By Dan Wheat, World staff writer

LEAVENWORTH - When scientists began seriously considering the Icicle Valley as the site of a $300 million national science lab, they came to Harriet Bullitt to see if they would have an environmental fight on their hands.

Bullitt - philanthropist, owner of the Sleeping Lady Mountain Retreat and Icicle Broadcasting Co., and a former board member of the National Audubon Society - is considered Leavenworth's leading environmental activist by many.

Bullitt said before the scientists contacted her and even before she knew anything of the possible project, her assistant heard a rumor that a national science lab may be coming and that Bullitt was against it.

She chuckled Saturday, thinking of that perception.

"So far, I would support them strongly," she said. "I would love to see a group like that here. Think of what we'll learn."

Mysteries of the universe and why we are here have fascinated Bullitt all of her life, she said.

She isn't the only enthusiast for the project.

Chelan County economic development promoters view it as the nirvana they've been dreaming about for years that could transform the county - as big economically as even the hydroelectric dams on the Columbia River.

A group of 100 leading scientists from around the nation, led by University of Washington physicist Wick Haxton, is seriously considering Cashmere Mountain, nine miles west of Leavenworth, as their first choice for the underground lab, Kaleen Cottingham, a project consultant and former deputy state Lands Commissioner, said Friday.

Cannon Mountain, nine miles southwest of town, is the group's second choice among 12 Western sites. The group hopes to recommend a site to the National Science Foundation in December or January, Cottingham said. Construction would take five years and wouldn't start for six to seven years.

Haxton began talking to U.S. Forest Service, Port of Chelan County and Chelan County PUD personnel in August. He contacted Bullitt two weeks ago.

Both mountains are on U.S. Forest Service land. Their summits are in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. Glenn Hoffman, district ranger of the U.S. Forest Service in Leavenworth, said he believes tunnels could be drilled under the mountains from outside the wilderness legally, without disturbing it. Bullitt said drilling under wilderness doesn't bother her.

"I can't see anything that would not be of benefit to the whole community," she said. "The Icicle Valley is a sacred place, but it's not pristine anymore. It's a grab bag for developers. It's filling up," she said. "This is an answer to a hodgepodge of different people who want to develop in their own interests."

Tunnel entrances, for Cashmere Mountain, would be about seven miles up Icicle Road from Sleeping Lady at the old Church of Moses Lake property near Bridge Creek Campground. Bullitt helped prevent the church from building there a decade or more ago. She said the church cleared timber and put in a road leading right up to where the tunnels could be built.

She said the project won't have much impact on recreation since the only thing above ground would be the road, tunnel doors and a parking lot. Major above-ground facilities would be located in or near Leavenworth, perhaps at the Peshastin Industrial Park.

Bullitt said Haxton's estimate of 30 trucks a day hauling rock on Icicle Road from the tunnels is no worse than logging trucks or helicopters.

Power shouldn't be a problem, said Scot Erickson, PUD customer service and energy services supervisor. The lab eventually would require up to 10 megawatts, a little less than the city of Cashmere requires in winter, he said.

At Haxton's request, Bullitt invited other community and environmental activists to meet Haxton on Oct. 27 at the Sleeping Lady so he could get further reactions. The group included Eric Root, Dick Rieman, Buford Howell, Mike Heath, Werner Jensen, Jeff Parson, Joan Alway and John Soest.

Root said the group had lots of questions but favors the project.

"It's a high-tech project with a small amount of environmental impacts. It would broaden the economic base of the community," said Root, a computer software developer who opposed condominium construction on Barn Beach on the Wenatchee River in Leavenworth.

"We see a great tie for visitors wanting to look at the lab's visitor center and the Audubon Center and museum. We see a synergy there," Root said.

Bullitt said Haxton is eager to get more community input but is looking for any deal stoppers. She said he is ready to go elsewhere if there's too much opposition.

Matthew Karrer, a U.S. Forest Service hydrologist who lives at Icicle Island Club at Snow Creek, four miles down Icicle Road from Bridge Creek, is opposed to the project.

"It would be horrible. I think it would destroy the character of the valley," he said, noting he's not speaking for the Forest Service.

"They would need parking up there and they would have to treat water coming out of the tunnel. Mines always have drainage problems and this is in a municipal watershed, so that's disturbing," Karrer said.

A report written by Haxton says the mountains are in the same rock formation as the Stevens Pass railroad tunnel which has been "remarkably dry" and stable for 100 years.

"The whole notion that a little more development won't hurt is not really logical. Where does that stop? Should we put chairlifts into the wilderness then?" Karrer asked.

Leavenworth City Councilman Carl Florea said there's great potential and lots of unanswered questions, and that a lot depends on how well it's planned.

Ken Marson, president of Marson & Marson Lumber Inc. in Leavenworth, said he wants to know more about the environmental impacts but favors economic development. "It's always neat when your area can be something special to the entire world," he said.

And those in economic development are excited.

Haxton's materials say, once built, the laboratory will cost $50 million to $60 million a year to operate and will employ about 100 people and 120 or more visiting scientists. It also will attract other high-tech businesses to the county, the materials say.

Bill Taylor, executive director of the Leavenworth Chamber of Commerce, called it an "incredible opportunity" for Leavenworth and the entire county, bringing worldwide attention, tourism and jobs.

Mark Urdahl, manager of the Port of Chelan County, said it's just the kind of "big ticket item" he and others have been dreaming of for years, complementing agriculture tourism, wineries and Leavenworth's Bavarian-theme draw.

His associate, Jon Eberle, the port's real estate consultant, said he's been told the lab could have a $2 billion local economic impact over 40 years.

"It's huge, but we have to contain our enthusiasm," Eberle said. "They don't want to go somewhere where a community doesn't want it, so community support is a big part of it."

Dan Wheat may be reached
at 664-7150 or by e-mail at wheat@wenworld.com
***
On the Web:
www.earthlab.org
***
What the lab would do
The National Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory would do research in physics, astrophysics, earth science and geomicrobiology - seeking to explore the 96 percent of the universe we can't see, study particles from the sun that reveal stellar energy generation, examine microbial life deep underground and study the formation of minerals and hydrology inside the Earth.

Such labs exist in Russia, Japan and Italy, but the facility proposed for the Icicle Valley would be more technologically advanced.

***
Why Cashmere Mountain?

Scientists prefer 7,210-foot-high Cashmere Mountain because:

It could shield a research laboratory with 6,270 feet of high-quality granite. which is needed to create an ultra-clean area not affected by ambient radiation from cosmic rays and other natural sources.

All but 400 yards of five miles of tunnels could be bored instead of blasted.

It's not close to a major fault and it's close to services.

-reprinted with permission of Wenatchee World

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DATE: Fri 31-Oct-2003

Icicle Valley tops list for national lab
By Dan Wheat, World staff writer

LEAVENWORTH - Two Icicle Valley sites are in the running for a $300 million National Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory.

The geology and easy access of Mount Cashmere and Cannon Mountain have made them the top two candidates among sites in 12 Western states, said Kaleen Cottingham, a project consultant in Olympia and former deputy state Lands Commissioner.

A group of about 100 scientists from around the country are considering recommending one of the mountains to the National Science Foundation in December or January, Cottingham said. It likely would take a year for the foundation to make a decision and then another five to six years of environmental review and permitting before five years of construction could start, she said.

The laboratory was headed to the Homestake Gold Mine in South Dakota but plans fell apart in June when the mine was sold and flooded, Cottingham said.

The National Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory (NUSEL) would work on the "cutting-edge of science," in physics, astrophysics, earth sciences, geomicrobiology, and related fields, seeking, among other things, to unlock secrets of the universe involving dark matter and limits of life, she said.

Such laboratories exist in Russia, Italy, and Japan.

The current effort to create NUSEL began in September, 2000, with a recommendation by the Nuclear Science Advisory Committee (NSAC) Long Range Plan Group, following a meeting hosted by the University of Washington, according to information from Cottingham. NSAC's charge is to advise the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy on basic research needs.

The project needs to be at least 6,000 feet underground and could involve miles of tunnels with rooms for experiments. The Icicle Valley mountains would provide 7,400 feet of cover and are made of uniform, stable rock.

The purpose of going very deep underground is to create an ultra-clean laboratory not affected by ambient radiation from cosmic rays and other natural sources.

The project is being led by Wick Haxton, a physics professor and head of the Institute for Nuclear Theory at the University of Washington. He was in Tucson, Ariz. and could not be reached for comment.

Glenn Hoffman, district ranger of the U.S. Forest Service in Leavenworth, said Haxton called him in August and met with him in September to discuss the potential sites.

Haxton has met with Chelan County PUD about the availability of power and met with a few Leavenworth environmentalists last weekend at the Sleeping Lady, Cottingham said.

Haxton wants to set up public meetings in the next month or so to explain what it could mean for Leavenworth, Cottingham said.

Scott Hugill, Leavenworth city administrator, said university representatives asked city planners earlier this month about available land and zoning in the city's urban growth boundary, but didn't reveal the project.

Cottingham said the facility would have three major components: the underground laboratory; a 160,000-square-foot science and administration building that could be 10 miles from the laboratory; and an 80,000-square-foot visitor and education center.

-reprinted with permission of Wenatchee World