And the libertarian response to that issue is not the ounce of prevention, but the pound of cure. Rather than have a priori environmental legislation, the libe

And the libertarian response to that issue is not the ounce of prevention, but the pound of cure. Rather than have a priori environmental legislation, the libertarian position is to wait until the (possibly irreversible) damage is done, then try and find the person who did it (if you can, and good luck if it was a variety of entities), then take them to a court, then prove them at fault (not a given, especially if more than one party), get a judgement of fiscal damages against them (hopefully they have enough money for recompense, but not enough money to tie you up for years), then actually get the money from them, and finally put that money towards cleaning up the spill (again, if it's not irreversible).