PLF joins new challenges to Clean Water Act citizen suits in California, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee

Arlington, Virginia; November 6, 2026: Pacific Legal Foundation has joined three citizen suits in defense of a family-owned California business, a Pennsylvania manufacturer, and a Tennessee town. In each case, PLF asks the court to hold that the Clean Water Act’s 1972 “citizen suit” provision violates the Constitution by handing the executive branch’s prosecutorial power to unaccountable private actors.

“The Constitution reserves executive power for the executive branch — it does not carve out exceptions allowing private groups to leverage government power to hinder the productivity of American cities and businesses,” said Sean Radomski, an attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation. “The Clean Water Act’s citizen suit provision has empowered private groups to circumvent the Constitution for over fifty years. That’s wrong.”

In California, PLF represents Corona Clay Company, a family business that produces clay for baseball diamonds and other athletic fields. Corona Clay was sued in 2018 by two nonprofits, Inland Empire Waterkeeper and Orange County Coastkeeper, for alleged violations of a discharge permit. Eight years later, even though only alleged procedural violations remain of their lawsuit, Waterkeeper and Coastkeeper still refuse to drop their citizen suit. Instead, they have weaponized the CWA to demand $5.5 million — not for threats to the environment, but for paperwork errors made by an employee no longer with the company.

In Pennsylvania, PLF represents Martelli’s Metal Fabrication, a manufacturing company sued by the Friends of the Delaware River over alleged stormwater runoff. Martelli’s fought back, rather than agreeing to a payout, arguing that the allegation was baseless because the underground tanks below its facilities, installed over 15 years ago, prevent runoff. Despite the implausibility of its claims, Friends of the Delaware River has refused to dismiss its lawsuit.

And in Tennessee, PLF represents the Town of Alexandria in a citizen suit filed by the Alabama-based nonprofit Tennessee Riverkeeper. Riverkeeper has filed 30 nearly identical suits across Tennessee, recently targeting Luttrell and Springfield over alleged violations of discharge permits. The nonprofit rapidly abandoned both cases after PLF joined to argue that the CWA’s citizen suit provision is unconstitutional.

Pacific Legal Foundation represents Corona Clay Company, Martelli’s Metal Fabrication, and the Town of Alexandria free of charge. The cases are Inland Empire Waterkeeper, et al. v. Corona Clay Company, Friends of the Delaware River, LLC v. Martelli’s Metal Fabrication, Inc., and Tennessee Riverkeeper, Inc. v. Town of Alexandria.