Two environmental land groups sued the Bureau of Land Management in federal court Monday saying that the bureau's land swap with Coyote Springs developer Harvey Whittemore was illegal, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Coyote Springs resulted from a land swap that gave Whittemore acreage central to his development in return for desert tortoise habitat the bureau deemed more suitable for the tortoise refuge. That swap at no cost was a big boost to the development.

"This was a huge change in favor of Whittemore. It rearranged 10,000 acres of the lease land," Janine Blaeloch, director of the anti-privatization group Western Lands Project, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit told the paper. The legal attack is based on procedural irregularities such as a lack of environmental impact statements.

Whittemore did not comment but this suit should test some of the questions about the swap the Times raised recently, although you've got to feel a little sorry for Harry Reid. He seems to be the whipping boy although every member of the Nevada congressional delegation, as well as a host of local officials, has enthusiastically backed the development as a boost to the state's economy.