A suit filed by the Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians could stall the transfer of the highly coveted former Coos Head Air National Guard Base near Charleston.

A U.S. District Court will decide whether to issue a restraining order to stop the 43-acre property's disposal but a suit, filed July 11, accuses the Bureau of Indian Affairs and General Services Administration of not meeting their legal obligations through the federal disposal process. It also asks the court to delay the transfer of the former air base until the suit can be resolved.

"Our allegation is that GSA made their mistake when they declared the property surplus," said Brett Kenney, an attorney representing the tribes. "That was a discretionary choice."

The GSA said it is moving forward with the disposal process until the legal issues are resolved in court.

"Our attorneys are reviewing (the suit)," said James Biederman, project manager for the GSA. "As of this point in time there is no existing temporary restraining order in place and the GSA is proceeding with our disposal process."

The tribes were once a lock to acquire the sought-after property because statutes governing the disposal of excess federal property guaranteed them first shot at the land. Located on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean and dozens of miles of dunes, the site is part of the tribe's 60 million acres of ancestral homeland.

In May, though, the BIA failed to submit an application initiating the land transfer. The missed deadline opened the purchase of the former Air National Guard base to educational institutions, nonprofit organizations and state and local governments.

The BIA has not said why the deadline was missed although Tribal Administrator Francis Somday II has alleged it was an administrative error.

"Our intent is not to get any money out of this," Somday said. "Our intent is, a mistake was made so let's get it fixed."

Kenney argues the GSA was not legislatively required to follow a strict time line through the federal disposal process and made an arbitrary decision when it bypassed the BIA and moved on to a second phase of the land transfer.

"There was no deadline within which GSA had to make a decision other than whenever it became impracticable," Kenney said.

The GSA, though, argues that it gave the BIA every chance to acquire the property. Biederman said the agency granted the BIA a 30-day extension to make an application for Coos Head. Then, when the deadline loomed, Biederman said he made several phone calls to the BIA that were never returned.

"That was on May 8," Biederman said. "Today is July 23 and as of today, GSA still has not received an excess application from BIA."

The agency hasn't received an explanation from the bureau regarding its failure to meet the deadline either, Biederman said.

A court date has not yet been set. The parties have their first scheduled meeting Aug. 5 in Eugene.

Once the GSA moved on to its second phase of the disposal process - the surplusing of the land under public use guidelines - interest in the property mushroomed.

GSA currently has three applications on file.

The Confederated Tribes have submitted an expression of interest through the BIA to acquire the property for either historic monument use or to purchase it at fair market value under the negotiated sale authority.

The Coos County Board of Commissioners also is seeking to acquire the property for economic development and would like to see the property developed and returned to the tax rolls.

A third application came from the Oregon Coastal Environments Awareness Network, a nonprofit corporation seeking to acquire a portion of the property for educational use. OCEAN has not yet received the required federal sponsorship it needs from the Department of Education. Because a benzene plume from underground storage tanks contaminated the property, DOE has indicated it will not sponsor the transfer of Coos Head.

OCEAN's application to GSA, though, indicates the group is interested only in the uncontaminated property. A response from DOE has not yet been received.

According to Air National Guard estimates, approximately two of the total 43 acres are contaminated with benzene.

Even if OCEAN is able to get the Department of Education's sponsorship, the group still must convince GSA to convey the property without the contaminated portion.

"Our position is that it's not in the best interest of the government to carve out the contaminated portions," Biederman said. "We're making the 43 acres available, not the 43 acres minus the two contaminated acres."

Biederman did not exclude dividing the property and granting ownership to multiple parties, if the groups can agree on the uses of the land.

"If this property were tied up indefinitely in the courts, the people that would lose would be the local community because it would prevent this property from being utilized for the public good, regardless of who uses it," he said.