HONOLULU -- A lawsuit has been filed in federal court in Spokane to prevent garbage from being shipped from Hawaii to a landfill in the Eastern Washington town of Roosevelt.

The lawsuit was filed Wednesday by the Yakama Nation and several environmental groups against the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which approved plans for shipments of plastic-wrapped bales of waste.

The lawsuit seeks to prevent the garbage from coming to the Roosevelt landfill and to require a full environmental review. The Department of Agriculture had found the project did not pose a significant risk to the environment.

Hawaiian Waste Systems signed a contract with the city to ship trash to the mainland last year. After rubbish was gathered and wrapped up the operation came to a standstill because the company did not have necessary permits to store or move the trash.

As the delays dragged on, Hawaiian Waste Systems had been cited by the Health Department for storing the garbage in non-permitted areas and recently the city had threatened to cancel the contract of paying Hawaiian Waste Systems $100 a ton because of the delays. About 20,000 tons sit waiting.