Located about 20 miles northeast of Knoxville, Luttrell is home to just over 1,000 Tennesseans. The town is the birthplace of country music stars Chet Atkins and Kenny Chesney and, now, the site of a legal challenge to the Clean Water Act’s “citizen suit” provision.
Added to the Clean Water Act in 1972, the citizen suit provision permits private individuals and groups to file lawsuits on behalf of “the public,” wrongfully delegating the executive branch’s authority to enforce federal law to unelected and unaccountable private actors.
Under this provision, an Alabama-based organization called Tennessee Riverkeeper sued Luttrell in November, alleging that the City has exceeded discharge permit limitations through its wastewater facility operations. The City plans to break ground on a new facility in 2026. Neither the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency nor the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation sued Luttrell in court for discharge violations. The agencies also declined to participate in this suit.
Tennessee Riverkeeper has relied on the Clean Water Act’s citizen suit provision to file lawsuits throughout Tennessee and Alabama, subjecting over two dozen small towns and businesses across the states to costly lawsuits. Many choose to settle out of court rather than devote years—and significant sums of their residents’ or stakeholders’ money—to fighting back.
Luttrell, however, decided to buck that trend.
Non-government entities do not have the authority to govern. By trying to hand off that authority to private actors, the Clean Water Act’s citizen suit provision violates the separation of powers and endangers Americans’ rights.
The City partnered with Pacific Legal Foundation to challenge the constitutionality of the CWA’s citizen suit provision, arguing that a private group like Tennessee Riverkeeper should not have been permitted to sue anyone with the government’s power and authority. In a motion to dismiss filed in early December, Luttrell argued that the lawsuit should be dismissed.
In a victory for Luttrell, just weeks after the City filed its challenge, Tennessee Riverkeeper withdrew its lawsuit.
“We are pleased to see a quick conclusion in this case,” said Sean Radomski, attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation and counsel for Luttrell. “Americans deserve to live and work without fearing that unaccountable actors can leverage government power against them without checks or limits. We will continue to partner with defendants to challenge the citizen suit provision until this unconstitutional delegation of executive power is struck down.”
What’s At Stake?
- Non-government entities do not have the authority to govern.
- The “citizen suit” provision of the Clean Water Act unconstitutionally gives the executive branch’s power to enforce federal law to unelected and unaccountable private citizens.
