Plans to build science lab renewed

WENATCHEE – A proposal to build a national science laboratory in the Cascade Mountains in central Washington may have renewed life.

The $300 million national science laboratory 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.

The National Science Foundation last July rejected a site proposed by University of Washington scientists. The site sits under Mount Cashmere, a mountain in Washington’s Alpine Lakes Wilderness about 10 miles southwest of Leavenworth.

The scientists are now proposing a new site under Cowboy Mountain on the west side of Stevens Pass, about one mile southwest of the Stevens Pass summit and two miles from the town of Scenic.

The idea is to use the 5.3-mile-long Pioneer Tunnel to get under Cowboy Mountain and develop the lab in phases, said John Wilkerson, a university physicist. The tunnel, which runs parallel to the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Cascade Tunnel, could provide rail access.