Plans for a West Virginia University research park using 58 acres of donated land in South Charleston, W.Va., have collapsed after the university and the Union Carbide Corporation, which owns the property, agreed to cancel the deal last week over liability concerns for the site.

A spokeswoman for the state’s Democratic governor, Joe Manchin III, told The Charleston Gazette that the university initially believed it would bear no responsibility for previous activities at the site, then recently decided it could not afford to take on potential liability for it. The property was formerly the site of Union Carbide’s primary national research center.

Union Carbide, a subsidiary of the Dow Chemical Company, told the newspaper that it had agreed to maintain environmental responsibility for the site, but that the university could not get the amount of liability insurance it felt it needed.

Governor Manchin helped set up the deal, which was signed at the statehouse last August. The donation, which was to include the land and several laboratories on it, was estimated by Dow to be worth $25-million. —Kathryn Masterson