SANDPOINT — Citizens Against the Newport Silicon Smelter are making good on a pledge to sue the Pend Oreille Public Utility District over a land sale the group contends is illegal.

The group put the district on notice a month ago that it would take legal action if the district didn’t void its sale of land to HiTest Sands, which is now known as PacWest Silicon. The 30 days have elapsed and CANSS official Michael Naylor asked the group’s legal counsel, Norm Semanko, what to tell its members now that time to void the sale has run out.

“You can tell them the truth, which is that the complaint is being finalized and will be filed as soon as possible. This is going to litigation now, due to the PUD’s failure to act. It was their choice. They could have fixed this, but chose not to,” Semanko said in remarks that were posted to CANSS Facebook page on Thursday.

Gonzaga University’s Environmental Law & Land Use Clinic drafted the PUD demand letter on behalf of CANSS and Responsible Growth*Northeast Washington, also known as RG*NEW. The district sold 186 acres of land to HiTest so the facility can be constructed.

Law clinic attorneys contend the PUD failed to follow state regulations for 14 acres included in the sale, which rendered the transaction illegal.

Attorneys assert that the PUD’s sale of the property was illegal because it does not fall within the scope of generating and delivering energy as required by Washington state law. Moreover, the district did not receive authorization by a vote from three-fifths of its constituents within the district to divest the lands for sale to HiTest Sands, which seeks to construct the silicon smelter near Newport. The attorneys also argue that property bundled up by Pend Oreille County for sale to the PUD was illegal as well.

“We, as the representatives of these two citizen groups demand that the PUD take immediate curative action to void these land transactions,” attorneys for CANSS said in an April 23 letter to the PUD.

Pend Oreille PUD spokeswoman Kenna Tornow said the district had no comment on assertions that the land sale was illegal.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.