Congresswoman Continuing to Press Coast Guard for CRC Documents

The Proposed Columbia River Crossing

U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R.-Wash.) is continuing to seek information about whether proponents of the Columbia River Crossing project leaned on the U.S. Coast Guard to issue permits for the project.

The Coast Guard has jurisdiction over the height of the proposed new bridge, which at least for now, appears to be dead. The bridge design was too low to allow the passage of shipping from industrial facilities just upriver from where I-5 crosses the Columbia River.

That oversight was not made public until very late in the process and well after the December 2011 federal Record of Decision that authorized the CRC.

Herrera Buetler, who like many of her Clark County constituents has been critical of the project, still wants to know why the Coast Guard, which initially expressed grave doubts about the bridge's design height, subsequently approved it.

Here's the letter she sent Coast Guard Commander Robert Papp on April 10:


WWeek 2015

Willamette Week’s reporting has concrete impacts that change laws, force action from civic leaders, and drive compromised politicians from public office. Support WW's journalism today.