About Coffeen Power Station Coffeen Illinois
Coffeen Power Station reportedly contained asbestos-containing materials throughout its 54-year operational history (1965–2019). Insulators, boilermakers, pipefitters, and maintenance workers from Missouri — including members of Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1, Boilermakers Local 27, and UA Local 562, all based in St. Louis — may have been exposed to asbestos-containing insulation, gaskets, fireproofing, and equipment sealing products during maintenance outages and equipment repairs.
Asbestos causes mesothelioma, lung cancer, asbestosis, and pleural disease. These conditions take 20 to 50 years to appear after initial exposure. By the time you are diagnosed, the exposure that caused your illness may be decades in the past.
Coffeen sits in the Illinois heartland, but many workers who may have been exposed there lived and worked across the Mississippi River industrial corridor — the densely industrialized stretch connecting St. Louis and its Missouri suburbs to Madison County, St. Clair County, and Montgomery County, Illinois. Maintenance workers reportedly traveled this corridor to perform outages at Coffeen, Labadie Energy Center, Portage des Sioux Power Plant, Granite City Steel, and Monsanto chemical operations on both sides of the river.
If you or a family member worked at Coffeen Power Station between 1965 and 2019, a Illinois asbestos attorney can help you understand:
- Which asbestos-containing materials may have been present at Coffeen
- Why coal-fired power stations used asbestos extensively
- Specific locations where occupational exposure may have occurred
- The diseases that develop years after exposure
- Your legal options for Missouri mesothelioma settlements and compensation
- How asbestos trust funds work — and why the August 28, 2026 deadline matters
- Missouri asbestos statute of limitations and filing strategy
Facility Overview
| Facility Name | Coffeen Power Station (Coffeen Generating Station) |
|---|---|
| Location | Coffeen, Illinois (Montgomery County) |
| Operational Years | 1965 – 2019 |
| Generating Capacity | Approximately 389 megawatts (MW) |
| Primary Fuel | Coal-fired steam generation |
| Former Operators | Illinois Power Generating Company; Vistra Corp (100% ownership at retirement) |
| Current Status | Retired/Closed (2019) |
Coffeen Power Station began commercial operations in 1965 at the height of asbestos use in American industrial construction. Like virtually every large-scale power plant built in that era, Coffeen was reportedly constructed with asbestos-containing materials specified as standard components for thermal insulation on piping and equipment, fire protection systems, equipment sealing and gaskets, electrical insulation, and boiler refractory materials.
The plant ran for more than five decades before retiring in 2019. That 54-year operational history spans the peak period of asbestos installation through the long tail of maintenance and repair work that repeatedly disturbed asbestos-containing materials placed during original construction. Each maintenance outage was a potential exposure event for every trade worker on-site.
The Mississippi River industrial corridor — the heavily industrialized stretch running from St. Louis north through Alton, Granite City, and the Madison and St. Clair County industrial belt — was home to some of the most significant occupational asbestos exposures in the Midwest. Coffeen was central infrastructure in that corridor. Thousands of employees, contractors, and union tradespeople from Missouri and Illinois may have spent years working in proximity to asbestos-containing materials allegedly present throughout the facility.
General Equipment at Coffeen Power Station Coffeen 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.
No Illinois EPA NESHAP abatement notifications have been identified for this facility in current public records. Per the framing above, absence of state-agency documentation should not be read as absence of asbestos — only as absence of a formal, regulated abatement event meeting reporting thresholds. Workers who recall encountering pipe insulation, block insulation, gaskets, or other asbestos-era construction materials at this facility may still have viable claims regardless of whether a state record exists.
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:
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.
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.