Blaine Island

Blaine Island is an island on the Kanawha River in the city of South Charleston, West Virginia. It is roughly 80 acres (320,000 m2) in size. Blaine Island serves as the South Charleston Manufacturing Site for the Union Carbide Corporation, a subsidiary of the Dow Chemical Company. Union Carbide purchased Blaine Island in 1927 in order to expand their petrochemical manufacturing operations in South Charleston. The company previously had petrochemical plants in South Charleston in 1925 and Clendenin in 1920, which holds the distinction as the world's first petrochemical plant.