WASHINGTON — A behind-the-scenes attempt by the Utah delegation to attach wilderness language to the Defense Reauthorization Act — which could have blocked the temporary storage of high-level nuclear waste in Utah and helped protect Hill Air Force Base — has fallen short.

A conference committee of senators and representatives working out differences between two versions of the bill has refused to include language, already part of a House version of the bill, that would have declared the Cedar Mountains area of Tooele County a wilderness area.

"It is a disappointment," said Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah. "A lot of bipartisan effort by all members of the Utah delegation went into trying to get it in."

Matheson and other Utah officials did not know why the conference committee did not agree to the wilderness language.

A wilderness designation could have blocked the construction of a railroad spur needed to transport nuclear waste to Goshute Indian tribal lands in Skull Valley.

Private Fuel Storage (PFS), a consortium of mostly Eastern nuclear power utilities, has a contract with the Skull Valley Band of Goshutes to store 40,000 tons of nuclear waste in above-ground canisters on tribal lands about 75 miles southwest of Salt Lake City.

The site would be "temporary" storage inasmuch as the contract is for 20 years with an option for a 20-year renewal. But Utah officials have been fighting the proposal, fearing that temporary storage would become permanent and citing a litany of environmental and public health concerns.

The language was included in the House version of the bill, at the behest of Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, who had a stand-alone bill on the same issue that passed out of a House committee unanimously. But attempts to keep it in during the conference committee failed.

"This seems to me to be a repeat of the stealth tactic (former Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah) tried to do," said Sue Martin, spokeswoman for PFS.

Utah Gov. Olene Walker met with the Utah delegation earlier this week to plot strategy, and the wilderness approach was deemed the best strategy currently available to help the state's efforts to block the waste.

Utah officials had raised the wilderness issue during hearings by the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, a three-judge panel deciding whether to recommend federal approval of the PFS license. The board rejected the state's argument.

The wilderness language is supported by Utah environmental groups and Hill Air Force Base, which sees it as a way to preserve the viability of its Utah Test and Training Range.

"It's a three-fer," one Utah official said.

In fact, the drive to protect Hill Air Force Base is every bit as strong among the Utah delegation as is the effort to keep nuclear waste out of Utah.