But the governor expects to "have a sense of where they come down on the agreement" in the next two to three weeks, he said Thursday during his monthly KUED TV news conference.

Huntsman wants the final deal to closely resemble a tentative agreement between the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) and environmentalists that he has already signed off on. Details of the deal are still secret.

That agreement is now threatened, according to Marc Heileson of the Utah chapter of the Sierra Club, one of the groups that sued in 2001 to stop construction of the 14-mile four-lane roadway from North Salt Lake to Farmington.

In the middle of those negotiations, UDOT's Washington lobbyist helped draft a proposed addition to a congressional transportation bill that would have blocked future lawsuits over Legacy's environmental studies, according to e-mails obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune.

The end-run provision failed to make it into the bill despite efforts by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, last month, but it succeeded in straining the fragile trust between UDOT and environmentalists who have fought Legacy construction.

Heileson said UDOT and Huntsman's office denied involvement in the provision, but the e-mails prove otherwise.

"We are struggling a little bit today," he said. "We still believe there is a win-win solution. . . . We think it is still out there, and we had hoped all along that we could reach that, but that is going to require good-faith negotiations and trust."

And the trust they have built with UDOT?

"It needs to be repaired," said Heileson.

But the negotiations are expected, at the very least, to limp along.

"I don't think we are about to pick up our marbles and go home, " said Roger Borgenicht of Utahns for Better Transportation, one of the plaintiffs. "We need to hopefully continue honest discussions."

Huntsman didn't push the congressional provision, but he agreed with its goal.

"I didn't have much say in getting it done. . . . But I would support anything that would get Legacy Highway accomplished," he said. "I happen to believe that the best fix is to sit down responsibly with the plaintiffs and to iron out an agreement, which we have done."

That agreement is now being picked apart by a legislative committee made up of four senators, six representatives, several officials from UDOT and the governor's office staff and the plaintiffs in the 2001 lawsuit.

Sen. Sheldon Killpack, R-Syracuse, is leading that committee and he says the group is far from reaching a deal.

"To say there is an agreement in place is too strong," he said. "To say there are offers on the table would be appropriate."

Lawmakers recently offered their latest proposal and are now waiting to hear back from the Sierra Club and others. Heileson said the environmentalists were still discussing how they would respond.

Any agreement would go before the full Legislature in the form of a resolution when they meet again in January, since it is expected to have a price tag higher than $1 million.

mcanham@sltrib.com