diff --git a/lib/galaxy/util/__init__.py b/lib/galaxy/util/__init__.py
index c8daa1041da..05db41ee92a 100644
--- a/lib/galaxy/util/__init__.py
+++ b/lib/galaxy/util/__init__.py
@@ -155,7 +155,7 @@ class Params:
     #       better solution I think is to more responsibility for 
     #       sanitizing into the tool parameters themselves so that
     #       different parameters can be sanitized in different ways.
-    NEVER_SANITIZE = ['file_data', 'url_paste']
+    NEVER_SANITIZE = ['file_data', 'url_paste', 'URL']
     
     def __init__(self, params, safe=True):
         if safe:
diff --git a/tools/data_source/biomart_filter.py b/tools/data_source/biomart_filter.py
index bb23242638a..08dd6292e66 100644
--- a/tools/data_source/biomart_filter.py
+++ b/tools/data_source/biomart_filter.py
@@ -26,9 +26,9 @@ def exec_after_process(app, inp_data, out_data, param_dict, tool=None, stdout=No
     MAX_SIZE   = CHUNK_SIZE * 100
     
     try:
-        # damn you stupid sanitizer!
-        URL = URL.replace('martX', 'mart&')
-        URL = URL.replace('0X_', '0&_')
+        # damn you stupid sanitizer! - URL is now in the NEVER_SANITIZE list in util.py
+        #URL = URL.replace('martX', 'mart&')
+        #URL = URL.replace('0X_', '0&_')
         page = urllib.urlopen(URL)
     except Exception, exc:
         raise Exception('Problems connecting to %s (%s)' % (URL, exc) )