Kobuta, Pennsylvania
Kobuta is an unincorporated community in Potter Township, Beaver County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located along the Ohio River, due west of Monaca, southwest of Industry, and southwast of Beaver. The area was the site of a butadiene and later a foamed polystyrene chemical plant during World War II and in the 1950's, owned by the Koppers United Company, predecessor to Koppers Company, Inc. The company produced the chemical butadiene, an ingredient of synthetic rubber. The name of the area came from the combination of "Koppers" and "butadiene". The community has largely disappeared from modern maps, except for a few business names.
Effectively all of Kobuta will become part of the Pennsylvania Shell ethylene cracker plant once it opens in the early 2020s.
Further reading
- MacArthur, A. 1977. Kobuta—A History of the Land. Milestones, Vol. 3, No. 2. Beaver County Historical Society.
- Walton, D.L. 1992. The Kobuta Story. Milestones, Vol. 17, No. 1. Beaver County Historical Society.