A group representing owners of oceangoing commercial ships is suing the Port of Astoria, alleging its new harbor fee charged to passing vessels is unconstitutional.

The Columbia River Steamship Operators’ Association also wants a judge to halt the transit tax through a preliminary injunction. The suit was filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Portland.

The Port of Astoria Commission unanimously passed the Astoria Harbor Maintenance and Safety Fee in March. The $300 fee went into effect July 1 and is intended to raise revenue to help with the maintenance of the Port’s Pier 1 at a time of strapped finances, according to the minutes of the commission’s March 19 meeting.

The Port seeks to collect the $300 transit fee from commercial vessels longer than 250 feet that pass the navigation channel by the Astoria waterfront.

“Pier 1 provides the only available critical emergency berth for distressed vessels at the mouth of the Columbia River, and serves as a land-based platform for providing emergency services including shipboard firefighting,” a resolution on the fee states.

But the association suing the port alleges the tariffs are being lodged against vessels that simply pass by the Port and don’t receive any services from it.

It “bears no relationship to costs created by or services provided to passing vessels. Indeed, the vessels do no cost the Port a penny, nor do they request or receive any benefits or services from the Port of Astoria – they just get a bill,’’ wrote David R. Boyajian, one of the lawyers representing the association, in the suit.

The association’s members own, operate, charter, or load cargo onto commercial ships that are longer than 250 feet, according to the suit. They allege, in part, that the tariff violates the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution.

“The Transit Tax, in whole or in part, burdens interstate commerce by treating transiting vessels like floating ATM machines,’’ Boyajian wrote in the suit.

A spokesperson from The Port of Astoria couldn’t immediately be reached Friday night.

Read the suit here.

-- Maxine Bernstein

Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com

Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian

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