In the 19^th century, as regards businesses, legislation was pro-industry, because the state benefited from industrial activity. Everything possible was done to encourage industry, and neighbours of factories who complained were rarely granted relief. But in the 1850s, when it came to an extension of the factory, the authorities took the side of nearby residents. The usual permissive attitude was no longer in evidence, and the factory had to reduce the pollution it was producing. From that moment, a number of laws linked the continued operation of the factory to the application of environmental norms. The factory at Saint-Léonard was required to reduce its pollution, if it was to be allowed to continue to produce zinc.

Over a period of time the Vieille-Montagne company had built other factories within the Province of Liège, at Angleur, Moresnet, Flône and Valentin-Cocq; but Saint-Léonard always created the greatest number of problems because of its urban location and the density of human population around it. At Angleur, most complaints that were registered came from cattle breeders who were upset about diseases affecting their herds; this problem obviously did not occur at Saint-Léonard.

Conflicts and excuses

The arguments put forward regarding the industrial pollution at Saint-Léonard factory are reminiscent of arguments used today. The strategies of legitimation used by Vieille-Montagne hardly differ from those used by corporations today.

From the beginning of the conflict, the Vieille-Montagne company kept up a discourse of denial, maintaining that the smoke that poured out of its factories was non-toxic. As from1840, the company hired scientists, doctors, and veterinarians to produce studies intended to buttress their contentions, that the smoke was harmless to human beings, animals and plants. But the conclusions of such experts, who were paid by the company, were hardly credible.

Later on, increasing protests led Vieille-Montagne to try a policy of paying off complainants. The factory at Saint-Léonard began paying a sum of money to its neighbours, in return for which it intended to purchase the right to pollute and to expand the plant. At the legal level, an army of lawyers was given the task of proving that the company’s actions were legal under the existing legislation for industrial plants.

In the late 1850s, faced with determined opposition from local authorities, Vieille-Montagne decided to invest money into research, hoping to discover industrial procedures that would produce less pollution – and which might give the company the opportunity to improve its public image. The company’s factories were provided with experimental condensers intended to remove some of the toxic material from the smoke. The smoke produced by the smelter ovens was channelled into a metal chamber which was supposed to recapture metallic particulates such as lead, cadmium and zinc oxide. The latter compound was not thought to be toxic, but its recapture was desirable because it was emitted in the form of white flakes that piled up on the ground outside the factory and killed the vegetation all around it. The new technology was supposed to allow the smoke to escape after the metals had been removed from it.