Posted on 06/06/2003 8:44:22 PM PDT by jwalburg
Proposed site not in danger for at least one year
WASHINGTON - Plans to build an underground laboratory in the Homestake mine would not be dashed if the mine's owner, Barrick Gold Corp., decides to shut down the pumps that now are keeping the mine dry, Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., says.
''I think that too much has been made of whether there is pumping or not,'' Daschle said Thursday.
Daschle said he would prefer if Barrick Gold did not shut down the pumps next week, as company officials have said they would.
But flooding ''is a very slow process,'' Daschle told South Dakota reporters on a conference call. ''We wouldn't even get to the level where the laboratory would be directly affected for some time - well over a year.''
Last week, the National Science Foundation said the Homestake mine in Lead would be the best place to build a national underground laboratory to study subatomic particles.
But Toronto-based Barrick Gold has said that the mine's pumping and electrical systems are too old and too expensive to safely operate, and it intends to turn off pumps that keep the deepest levels of the mine from filling with water.
Daschle and Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., have called on Barrick to reconsider. But even if the pumps are killed, ''I think we could guarantee that we could create the conditions the scientists are looking for with the right infrastructure, the right dehumidifiers and the right pumps,'' Daschle said.
The company wants to be protected from any environmental liability that could result from the mine's conversion. Daschle called that issue ''the final question.''
Rep. Bill Janklow, who has met with Bush administration budget officials about the project, said he, Daschle and Johnson met this week and had ''substantive discussion'' regarding Homestake.
He should know gophers always abandon a flooded underground dwelling .
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