West Virginia manufacturer challenges private takeover of enforcement

Anmoore, West Virginia; August 7, 2026: A graphite manufacturer asked a federal court on Wednesday to dismiss a lawsuit brought under a law that hands the government’s enforcement power to private groups.

In April, the West Virginia Rivers Coalition and the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy sued Amsted Graphite Materials LLC under the Clean Water Act’s citizen suit provision, seeking penalties up to $68,445 per day, per violation, even though the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection never filed a case of their own in federal court. Amsted argues the citizen suit provision crosses a constitutional line on delegating executive authority.

“These groups aren’t stepping in because government abandoned its job — EPA and West Virginia’s DEP have been engaged with this facility for years, and Amsted is completing a facility upgrade project on a schedule the state itself supervises,” said Sean Radomski, an attorney with Pacific Legal Foundation. “What’s happening is that unelected, unaccountable private groups are using the courts to override the government’s own enforcement judgment. The Constitution doesn’t let the government delegate its judgment to private groups.”

In 2020, Amsted acquired a century-old graphite and carbon manufacturing facility in Anmoore, inheriting environmental obligations from decades of prior ownership. The company has worked under agreements with the EPA and the state DEP ever since to improve its facility and environmental impacts.

A win for Amsted would affirm that the Constitution reserves prosecutorial judgment for officials accountable to voters, not for private groups free to override it whenever they disagree. This case is part of PLF’s effort to end the unconstitutional delegation of the government’s enforcement power to private groups. PLF recently celebrated a swift legal victory in a similar case on behalf of the City of Luttrell, Tennessee, and joined litigation on behalf of the City of Springfield, Tennessee.

Pacific Legal Foundation and Steptoe & Johnson PLLC represent Amsted. The case is West Virginia Rivers Coalition, et al. v. Amsted Graphite Materials, LLC.