About Aurora Power Station Aurora Illinois
Aurora Generation LLC is a natural gas/oil-fired combined-cycle or peaking power generation facility located in Aurora, Illinois (Kane County) with a capacity of approximately 181 MW. The facility has been operating since 2002 under LS Power Development LLC, which holds 100% ownership. Power generation facilities rank among the most asbestos-contaminated worksites in the United States, with workers potentially exposed to asbestos-containing materials during construction and initial equipment installation, routine maintenance and repair work, turbine and boiler overhauls, pipe insulation removal and replacement, renovation and equipment upgrades, and demolition and facility decommissioning.
Aurora Generation LLC may have incorporated older generating units and infrastructure acquired and recommissioned by new operators, pre-existing thermal insulation systems installed before asbestos regulations took effect, legacy boiler components and turbine systems that continued in service through ownership transitions, and aged pipework and building components from decades-old industrial construction. Infrastructure installed before the mid-1970s — when asbestos use in industrial construction peaked — may have contained legacy asbestos-containing materials (ACMs). Maintenance crews who disturbed pre-1975 infrastructure may have been exposed to asbestos-containing materials regardless of when LS Power assumed operational control.
Asbestos-containing materials were built into power plants from the early 20th century through the late 1970s and early 1980s. After regulatory restrictions took hold, legacy ACMs stayed in place and were routinely disturbed during maintenance for decades afterward. This pattern is well-documented in litigation records from Missouri and Illinois facilities, including multiple Ameren UE plants along the Missouri side of the Mississippi River corridor.
General Equipment at Aurora Power Station Aurora Illinois
The equipment below represents the systems and infrastructure documented or typically present at this facility during the era when asbestos-containing materials were specified in industrial construction. This is general facility-equipment reference — not a legal attribution of any specific product, manufacturer, or exposure event to this facility. Material-category and manufacturer information is addressed in the AsbestosIndex Product Crosswalk linked under the records table below.
Documented Asbestos Evidence
The records below are verified, state-documented asbestos removals at this facility. Each entry represents a regulated abatement project where the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Illinois EPA) was notified under federal NESHAP rules, the work was logged, and the asbestos-containing material was confirmed and removed under regulated conditions. These are not allegations or estimates — they are paper records tying documented asbestos-containing material to this specific site.
Material Categories in Documented Records
The materials documented above (and similar asbestos-containing materials commonly encountered in records of this type) appear in the AsbestosIndex catalog with historical manufacturer and trust-fund information. Click a category to view manufacturers historically associated with that material:
Who May Have Been Exposed at Aurora Power Station Aurora Illinois
Workers at Aurora Generation LLC and similar natural gas/oil-fired facilities may have been exposed to asbestos-containing materials during combustion and boiler system work involving block insulation and boiler brick systems, pipe covering and lagging, refractory cements and castable refractory materials, and thermal expansion joint materials. Workers were also exposed through steam and condensate pipe network maintenance, encountering asbestos pipe covering, block and blanket insulation systems, asbestos rope packing in valve stems and pump glands, and asbestos-containing gaskets.
Turbine and generator system workers were exposed to turbine packing and gland seals, asbestos-containing gaskets and valve packings, insulating blankets and turbine casings, and exhaust system insulation materials. Electrical infrastructure workers encountered asbestos-containing arc chutes and switchgear components, asbestos panel boards and electrical enclosures, motor insulation and winding materials, and cable tray insulation and fireproofing materials. Members of Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1 and UA Local 562 reportedly worked on identical systems at comparable facilities along the Mississippi River industrial corridor.
Critical Filing Deadline & Next Steps
Illinois law gives mesothelioma and asbestos-disease claimants 2 years from the date of medical diagnosis to file a personal-injury lawsuit (735 ILCS 5/13-202). For wrongful-death claims after an asbestos-related death, the filing window is 2 years from the date of death (740 ILCS 180/2). The two deadlines run on separate tracks — preserving one does not extend the other.
The personal-injury clock runs from diagnosis, not from exposure. Mesothelioma latency is typically 20 to 50 years, so workers exposed in the 1950s–1980s are being diagnosed today.
Practical first steps
- Document what you remember. Pay stubs, W-2s, union cards, photographs, coworker names, and dates of employment. The WorkChain widget on this page can save a copy you can email yourself.
- Preserve medical records. Pathology reports, biopsy results, imaging, and pulmonary-function tests are central to both civil claims and trust-fund filings.
- Identify household members. Spouses who laundered work clothing and children of plant workers are eligible for secondary-exposure claims when diagnosed with an asbestos-related disease.
- Speak with an asbestos attorney with Illinois experience. The first conversation is free and confidential. Asbestos trust-fund claims and civil claims run on different tracks — both can be pursued in parallel.
Asbestos-Related Diseases
Asbestos fiber exposure can cause several specific diseases that typically appear decades after the original exposure. The latency period — the gap between exposure and diagnosis — usually runs 20 to 50 years. That's why workers exposed in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s are receiving diagnoses today.
Mesothelioma
A rare, aggressive cancer that affects the lining of the lungs (pleural mesothelioma), abdomen (peritoneal), or heart (pericardial). Mesothelioma is almost exclusively caused by asbestos exposure, which is why a mesothelioma diagnosis often points directly to historical workplace exposure. Average latency from first exposure to diagnosis is 30-50 years.
Asbestosis
A chronic, non-cancerous scarring of lung tissue caused by inhaled asbestos fibers. Asbestosis causes progressive shortness of breath, persistent cough, and reduced lung function. It does not improve with treatment, and it is a recognized basis for compensation under most trust schedules and civil claims.
Lung Cancer
Asbestos exposure significantly increases the risk of lung cancer, particularly when combined with a history of smoking. Asbestos-related lung cancer is compensable under the same trust schedules and civil claim avenues as mesothelioma.
Other Recognized Diseases
Pleural plaques, pleural thickening, laryngeal cancer, ovarian cancer, and certain gastrointestinal cancers are also recognized as asbestos-related under various trust schedules and case-law authorities, though eligibility and proof requirements vary by claim type.
If you have any of these diagnoses and you worked at this facility, lived with someone who did, or were exposed in any documented capacity, you may have a claim worth pursuing. Speak with an attorney before assuming you don't qualify.
Cross-State & Regional Corridor Workers
The Aurora, Illinois facility sits within the broader Illinois-Missouri industrial region where power generation, petrochemical production, and heavy manufacturing have concentrated asbestos hazards for more than a century. Workers in this corridor — including those who moved between Illinois and Missouri job sites — share common exposure histories. The Mississippi River industrial corridor stretches from St. Louis north through Alton, Granite City, and East St. Louis on the Illinois side, and through St. Charles, Franklin, and Jefferson counties on the Missouri side. Workers throughout this corridor shared common exposures to asbestos-containing materials, common union halls, and in many cases common employers across state lines. Comparable Midwest power plants include Ameren UE’s Labadie Energy Center (Franklin County, MO), Portage des Sioux Power Plant (St. Charles County, MO), Sioux Energy Center (St. Charles County, MO), and Rush Island Energy Center (Jefferson County, MO), as well as industrial sites such as Monsanto’s chemical complex in St. Louis County and Granite City Steel in Madison County, Illinois.Data Sources
Information about facility equipment, industrial materials, and occupational records referenced on this page is drawn from publicly available sources where applicable, including:
- EPA ECHO Facility Compliance Database — enforcement and compliance records for industrial facilities
- OSHA Establishment Search — federal workplace inspection history
- EIA Form 860 Plant Data — power-plant equipment and ownership records (where applicable)
- Illinois Environmental Protection Agency NESHAP asbestos abatement notification records
- Published asbestos trial and trust fund records (publicly filed court documents)
- AsbestosIndex Product & Manufacturer Crosswalk — historical asbestos-containing product schedules linked to manufacturers
If specific equipment or product claims in this article are sourced from a non-public database, the source is identified parenthetically within the text above.