NSF rejects plan for Washington lab

LEAVENWORTH, Wash. – The National Science Foundation has rejected a proposal to build a $300 million underground science laboratory under Mount Cashmere in central Washington.

The lab would have been built more than a mile underground in the Icicle Canyon of the Wenatchee National Forest, 9 miles west of this Cascade Mountain resort town.

The foundation narrowed the list of eight potential sites for the laboratory to two, and announced finalists Thursday.

The finalists are the Homestake Mine in Lead, S.D., and the Henderson Mine near Denver, an operating ore mine that already has the necessary environmental and operating permits to build a tunnel.

The six rejected sites include Mount Cashmere, as well as sites in California, Minnesota, Virginia, New Mexico and Ontario, Canada. The foundation did not say why the six sites were ruled out.

The lab would conduct research in physics, astrophysics, earth science and geomicrobiology, studying particles from the sun, the formation of minerals and hydrology inside the Earth and microbial life deep underground.

“Of course, we’re a little unhappy that we didn’t succeed. I continue to think that a specially engineered site is the best for physics, but the NSF wants to explore two mining sites instead,” said Wick Haxton, a University of Washington physicist who spearheaded the Leavenworth proposal.

Community opposition and cost may have played a role in the foundation’s decision, said Marilyn Cox, director of the university’s lab office. The two sites that were chosen were both mines, while the Leavenworth site would have had to be built from scratch, she said.

“We are very disappointed by the decision,” Cox said. “We thought Mount Cashmere was a very good and appropriate site for this project and were really excited about the potential it would hold for the future of the state.”

The university had invested about $300,000 into the proposal, Cox said.