The Coastal Law Enforcement Action Network (CLEAN) was created to provide a public interest service of legal enforcement of the California Coastal Act by preparing, filing and litigating coastal enforcement lawsuits that require compliance with environmental protection and public access provisions of the law.

CLEAN advocates at Coastal Commission hearings, as well as in other appropriate settings, for strong protection of the California coast and its natural environment - from the littoral zone to the Environmentally Sensitive Habitat Areas (ESHA) on land - places which coastal wildlife depend on.

CLEAN has successfully resolved non-compliance issues with Southern California Gas Company (at the Ballona Wetlands) , and is in the process of achieving important resource protection and restoration at the City of San Diego's Torrey Pines Gliderport.

A better outcome for coastal visual resources and public access was achieved at Bel Air Bay Club, along the Los Angeles coast, and protection of important Environmentally Sensitive Habitat Area of Coastal Terrace Prairie was achieved on the San Mateo Coast at the Waddell Ranch site.

CLEAN has litigation pending against the California Coastal Commission

• to protect endangered Least Terns and other wetland/lagoon-dependent birds from installation of heavy fishing wire along the shoreline;
• to protect streamside ESHA in Stokes Canyon, which drains to Malibu Creek and Malibu Lagoon, from many years of illegal use by a thoroughbred race horse boarding facility;
• to insure mitigation of damage to public resources from new steam generators at Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant;
• to protect precious and rare vernal pool wetlands on a coastal terrace at Isla Vista in Santa Barbara.

CLEAN also has pending enforcement litigation against several unpermitted developments of significance, including land belonging to the National Park Service which has had ESHA altered and scraped away, an important stream corridor in the Santa Monica Mountains' Zuma Canyon, lighting structures which would harm adjacent coastal wetlands, building of private decks and inappropriate plantings into lagoon ESHA areas.