WASHINGTON — Having thus far failed to make their case in the courts, opponents of storing 40,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste on Goshute tribal lands in Tooele County took their cause to the nation's capital Monday, calling the proposal "environmental racism" and "nuclear colonialism."

Environmental organizations and Native American environmental justice organizations called on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to reject a license application by Private Fuel Storage, a consortium of nuclear power utilities, to store the waste in canisters above ground on lands owned by the Skull Valley Band of Goshutes.

"Locating high-level radioactive waste facilities on Indian lands violates the trust responsibility of the U.S. government, federal laws and treaties, and is an extreme example of the continuing environmental racist policies against Indian people," said Tom Goldtooth, executive director of Indigenous Environmental Network. "PFS must be stopped."

Environmental justice issues, such as the impacts of the waste facility on traditional tribal values, were not considered by the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board when it voted 2-1 to recommend the NRC grant PFS a license. But those issues will certainly be the focus of litigation should the NRC grant the license, participants said.

Margene Bullcreek, who has spearheaded Goshute opposition in Utah through her group Ohngo Gaudadeh Devia Awareness, said the issue for Goshutes is not about how much money the 130 band members would get from the deal, but "who we are" as Native Americans. "This waste will destroy who we are," she said.

Anne Sward Hansen, a Utahn with the Environmental Justice Foundation, called for congressional oversight of Goshute tribal officials and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, who all approved the PFS lease in a deal that Hansen and others now say was fraught with corruption and illegalities.

"The merits of this case need to be heard in some judicial or oversight venue before the NRC commissioners grant approval for a PFS license," Hansen said.

If the issues are not addressed, she added, "the NRC decision could become historically the greatest act of environmental racism and injustice in America."

According to opponents, tribal members have never voted on the proposal, and tribal chairman Leon Bear, who negotiated the PFS deal, has thwarted such attempts and changed tribal election rules to remain in power after his term expired last November, Bullcreek said.

Goshutes opposed to PFS, led by Bullcreek, have been fighting for years to have Bear removed from office, but their case has been rejected by the courts, which ordered the matter resolved by the BIA and the tribe.