Goshutes, PFS sue Interior

Deseret Morning News graphic   Complaint filed against the Department of the Interior(827kb .pdf file)

A new lawsuit accuses the Interior Department of bowing to political pressure in blocking a proposed nuclear waste repository in Utah's West Desert.

The Skull Valley Band of the Goshute Indians and Private Fuel Storage filed the lawsuit Tuesday afternoon in federal court in Salt Lake City. They ask a judge to overturn the Interior Department's decision to block the nuclear waste dump, order information to be produced on the backroom politicking that led to the deal being killed and an award of potentially millions of dollars in damages.

"Utah politicians and their representatives repeatedly contacted decisionmakers at the DOI regarding the Skull Valley Band's lease with PFS, in an effort to force agency officials to stop the SNF (spent nuclear fuel) project at Skull Valley," the lawsuit says.

In court papers, the tribe revealed that it was to have been paid $200,000 a year until commercial deliveries of spent nuclear fuel rods started coming. Then, the money would increase to $1 million per year and the Skull Valley Band would have an opportunity for "profit sharing." Private Fuel Storage is a consortium of nuclear power utilities.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved a license for PFS at the the Skull Valley site after eight years of hearings. But on Sept. 7, 2006, associate deputy Interior secretary James Cason disapproved PFS's lease.

"As a direct result of the Cason decision, PFS ceased making pre-operational lease payments to the Skull Valley Band," the lawsuit says.

That same day, another Interior official denied PFS's request for a rail line that would have transported casks of nuclear waste to Skull Valley.

"The Interior Department coordinated with Utah political leaders to orchestrate the rejection of the Skull Valley Band's lease with PFS," the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit charges that decisions were taken out of the hands of field personnel and made by political appointees and were "arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion, not in accordance with law, and without observance of procedure required by law."

"The Goshute people are tired of being treated unfairly," the tribe's current chairman, Lawrence Bear, said in a statement Tuesday.

Attempts to reach Interior Department officials for comment Monday were unsuccessful.

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Contributing: Associated Press

E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com