THE Kanawha Valley entered one of the most productive and prosperous periods of its history in 1959, when the Union Carbide Corp. opened its Technical Center in South Charleston. Many a patent, many a process and many a job followed.
When Dow Chemical bought Carbide in 2001, it was clear the Technical Center would have to be reincarnated as something else. And in August 2007, the state and Union Carbide seemed ready to embark on a promising new venture.
West Virginia University was poised to acquire a Kanawha Valley research and teaching campus, valued by Carbide at $25 million, for nothing.
Carbide, now a subsidiary of Dow, would give the 58-acre Union Carbide Technology Park to WVU. The university would establish a campus at the Tech Center, offer classes there, and rent space to private research firms.
The potential for educational, research and commercial gains was enormous.
Carbide agreed to maintain all responsibility for any environmental issues that might arise on the site.
"The donation was contingent on that," said Jim Guidarini, a Union Carbide vice president in charge of activities at the South Charleston site. "We said we would maintain environmental responsibility for the property in perpetuity."
WVU was required under the agreement to obtain liability insurance. It ended up deciding it could not obtain the insurance it thinks it needs.
"On July 10, the decision was made to cancel the agreement because insurance requirements satisfactory {to both parties} could not be obtained," Dow said in a press release.
Such is life in an overly litigious society, where the risk of legal exposure is so great that creative enterprises are avoided, not undertaken.
The possibility of synergy, profit and another half-century of discovery and gain are stillborn. Prosperity is not to be - cannot be.
The United States is getting nowhere fast this way, and West Virginia right along with it.