I recently asked this in one of the Live QA sessions – only after submitting it realizing it was somewhat off-topic for that session’s subject.
I’ve read/heard from people like Walter Block and others about in early industrial US where lawsuits were brought against factories for pollution by individual private-property owners (I believe it was attributed to the 1830s – 1840s. In addition, they described the beginnings of a sort of nascent pollution-forensics industry which would use science to attempt to legally prove the source/cause of pollution. However, I’ve struggled to find much of any alternative or primary sources on these types of cases – especially cases in which the private property owner was successful.
Can you provide any insight or resources that go into more detail of that phenomenon?
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