Hayden Island residents sue Columbia River Crossing

Hayden Island advocates have filed a lawsuit against the Columbia River Crossing, alleging federal authorities approved a faulty environmental impact statement for the project.

Filed on July 2 by the Hayden Island Livability Project, the Hayden Island Manufactured Home Community Homeowners Association, and some neighborhood residents, the suit claims impacts to low-income residents — some of whom live 50 feet from the project — and air quality weren’t studied well enough.

Hayden Island is the site of the Jantzen Beach shopping center.

The suit names the Federal Highway Administration, the Federal Transit Administration, and several regional administrators for those agencies.

The suit joins two others filed in early July against the $3.5 billion project, set to replace the Interstate 5 Bridge, upgrade interchanges over 5 miles, add light rail to downtown Vancouver and improve pedestrian and bicycle crossings.

One suit was filed by a group of Northeast Portland neighborhoods and groups, also alleging poor environmental planning. The third was filed by Vancouver’s Thompson Metal Fab, saying that the planned 95-foot bridge height, will impede the company’s competitiveness.

The CRC has maintained that on a large project, such litigation is to be expected.

“The administrative record for the suits will be compiled over several months and then a federal judge will rule on the merits of the suits,” spokeswoman Anne Pressentin wrote in an email. “In the meantime, the project will continue to move forward. If the judge’s findings result in remanding issues to the project to address, there could be impacts to project budget and schedule.”