“That rule ensures that citizen suits serve to ‘supplement rather than to supplant governmental action,'” Boasberg, an Obama appointee, wrote in the opinion.
At issue in the lawsuit from the Center for Environmental Health (CEH) and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) was Inhance’s fluorination process, which creates a coating on the inside of plastic barrels to make them more durable and resilient. But testing has indicated that the fluorination process can create per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, as a byproduct. That group of thousands of persistent chemical compounds has been linked to various cancers, developmental disorders and other health implications.