[Jaygles]

The residents can simply stop doing business with that particular freight company. Now that they know they operate unsafely from suffering permanent damage from chemical poisoning, they can make an informed decision on the free market.

[AstralStorm]

Right. After the fact and poisoning the swathes of land and tons of water nobody will clean up. And cost of the lost health of people being offloaded onto taxpayers.

The company or its shareholders is not bearing the cost of wrongdoing.

As such, the market is incentivized to do more of this garbage.

Environmental pollution is a classic example of a market failure. Market failures are the rule not some exception - they're a way to maximize profit. Efficient markets have zero profit.