Mesothelioma Lawyer Missouri: Legal Rights for Will County Generating Station Workers

Know Your Rights If You Worked at ComEd’s Will County Station

If you worked at Commonwealth Edison’s Will County Generating Station in Romeoville, Illinois, and you’ve been diagnosed with mesothelioma, asbestosis, or lung cancer — you may have a legal claim worth pursuing. A mesothelioma lawyer in Missouri can evaluate your case at no cost to you. Missouri’s statute of limitations gives you five years from the date of diagnosis to file an asbestos-related claim — but that window closes whether you act or not. The plant reportedly operated for decades using large quantities of asbestos-containing materials, and the manufacturers who supplied those products knew the risks and concealed them. Former employees, contractors, and family members exposed through contaminated work clothing may all be entitled to substantial compensation. This page explains what happened at this facility, which trades faced the greatest exposure risk, and what legal options remain available today.

Commonwealth Edison’s Will County Generating Station: Asbestos Exposure Overview

Facility Overview

The Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) Will County Generating Station was a coal-fired electric power plant in Romeoville, Illinois, in Will County — roughly 30 miles southwest of Chicago along the Des Plaines River. The plant supplied electricity to residential, commercial, and industrial customers throughout northern Illinois and the greater Chicago area for decades. This facility is part of the broader industrial corridor connecting Illinois and Missouri, reflecting the regional scope of utility construction and the asbestos-containing materials that were standard to it.

Key Facts

Owner/Operator: Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd), a subsidiary of Exelon Corporation (formerly part of Unicom Corporation)
Location: Romeoville, Will County, Illinois (Des Plaines River corridor)
Primary Fuel: Bituminous coal
Service Period: Earliest generating units came online around 1955; additional units added through the 1960s
Decommissioning: Major wind-down in the late 1990s and early 2000s; demolition activities extended into subsequent years
Peak Workforce: Hundreds of operations, maintenance, and contract workers; additional trade labor — including members of Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1 and Plumbers and Pipefitters UA Local 562 — during outages, overhauls, and construction expansions

Like virtually every large coal-fired power plant built in the United States between 1940 and 1980, the Will County Generating Station was reportedly built and maintained using large quantities of asbestos-containing materials (ACMs). This was standard industry practice — driven by asbestos’s thermal and fire-resistance properties, and by aggressive marketing from manufacturers who concealed what they knew about the health consequences.

Asbestos Exposure in Power Plants: Why Manufacturers Used Asbestos-Containing Materials

The Thermal Problem in Power Generation

Coal-fired generating stations operate in extreme conditions. Boilers at plants like Will County reportedly operated at temperatures exceeding 1,000°F and pressures measured in hundreds of pounds per square inch. Turbines, feed-water heaters, economizers, condensers, and miles of connecting piping all required thermal management — retaining heat where needed, preventing burns and energy loss, protecting workers from contact, and limiting fire risk throughout a combustion facility.

Why the Industry Chose Asbestos-Containing Materials

Chrysotile (white), amosite (brown), and crocidolite (blue) asbestos minerals all had properties that utility engineers and contractors found valuable:

Extreme heat resistance — asbestos fibers do not melt or burn at temperatures found in power plant operations
Tensile strength — fibers can be woven, braided, and compressed into stable, durable forms
Low thermal conductivity — effective insulation reducing heat transfer
Chemical resistance — useful in boiler chemistry environments
Low cost and wide availability — inexpensive and heavily marketed to utility contractors throughout the 20th century
Code compliance — building and equipment codes of the era were often easiest to satisfy using asbestos-containing products

What Asbestos Manufacturers Knew — And Concealed

Asbestos manufacturers knew about serious health hazards decades before warning labels appeared or regulators acted. Internal industry documents produced in litigation show that companies including Johns-Manville Corporation, Owens-Illinois, Owens Corning Fiberglas, Armstrong World Industries, W.R. Grace, Combustion Engineering, and Crane Co. had evidence linking asbestos exposure to lung disease, asbestosis, and cancer — and in many cases actively suppressed it.

Workers at the Will County Station who may have been exposed to asbestos-containing materials from these manufacturers during the 1950s through 1980s reportedly received no adequate warnings, no effective respiratory protection, and no information about what they were breathing. That failure to warn is the legal foundation for asbestos claims filed today. An asbestos cancer lawyer in Missouri understands these liability principles and knows how to hold manufacturers accountable through litigation and trust fund claims.

When Asbestos-Containing Materials Were Allegedly Used at Will County Station

Construction Phase (1950s–1960s)

Initial construction and the addition of generating units reportedly required installing large quantities of asbestos-containing insulation and related materials:

Boiler insulation: Asbestos block insulation and asbestos-containing cement may have been applied to boiler casings, fireboxes, and associated equipment — products potentially including materials from Johns-Manville, Armstrong World Industries, and Thermal Ceramics
Pipe insulation: Pre-formed asbestos pipe covering — typically containing amosite (brown asbestos), among the most hazardous fiber types — may have been installed on steam, condensate, feed-water, and other high-temperature piping systems; trade names included Kaylo and Thermobestos
Turbine insulation: Asbestos-containing blankets and block insulation may have wrapped turbine casings and steam lines, with products from Johns-Manville among those reportedly used
Structural fireproofing: Spray-applied asbestos-containing fireproofing may have been applied to structural steel — a standard practice in industrial construction of that era; products such as Monokote and Aircell were widely used in power plant applications
Gaskets and sealing materials: Asbestos-containing gasket products from Garlock Sealing Technologies, Armstrong World Industries, and other manufacturers may have been installed at flanged pipe connections, valve bonnets, heat exchanger covers, and boiler access panels throughout the facility
Rope and packing: Asbestos-containing rope and packing materials from Johns-Manville and Garlock may have been used in valve stems, pump seals, and expansion joints throughout steam and feed-water systems

Operations and Maintenance Phase (1960s–1980s)

Day-to-day plant operations created ongoing, repetitive opportunities for asbestos exposure through routine maintenance work:

Boiler tube work and overhauls: Required workers to enter boiler environments and work on or near asbestos-insulated surfaces; removal and replacement of insulation products including Kaylo block and asbestos-containing cements may have generated significant airborne fiber concentrations
Valve and pump maintenance: Regularly involved removing and replacing asbestos-containing packing, gaskets, and sealing materials from Garlock Sealing Technologies and Armstrong World Industries
Turbine overhauls: May have required stripping asbestos-containing insulation from turbine components, then reinstalling replacement insulation that often also contained asbestos
Pipe system maintenance: Insulation removal and reinstallation ran continuously throughout plant operations, involving products including Thermobestos pipe covering and associated asbestos-containing installation materials
Electrical work: Older switchgear and control equipment may have contained asbestos-containing panel liners and arc chutes — products incorporating materials from W.R. Grace and various equipment manufacturers
Flange breaking and joint work: Disturbing asbestos-containing gaskets and joint materials may have released asbestos fibers into the breathing zone of workers performing this routine task

The late 1970s and 1980s marked a transition period. OSHA and EPA implemented asbestos regulations, and utilities including ComEd began moving toward non-asbestos replacement products. Existing asbestos-containing materials remained in place throughout the plant, however, meaning maintenance workers, pipefitters, boilermakers, and others allegedly continued encountering ACMs regularly through this period.

Remediation and Decommissioning Phase (Late 1990s–2000s)

Decommissioning triggered NESHAP (National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants) requirements under the Clean Air Act. NESHAP regulations require facility owners to survey for and abate regulated asbestos-containing materials before demolition begins. NESHAP abatement and demolition notification records associated with this facility document the presence of asbestos-containing materials that required professional removal and disposal (documented in NESHAP abatement records). Workers involved in decommissioning and demolition — including insulators, pipefitters, boilermakers, and general laborers — may have faced asbestos exposure risk if proper abatement protocols were not consistently followed.

Which Workers and Trades Faced the Greatest Risk

Insulators (Thermal and Acoustic)

Insulators consistently rank among the most heavily exposed workers in asbestos litigation, and those who performed work at the Will County Station are no exception. Members of Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1 and affiliated locals may have been exposed through:

Installing, removing, and replacing pipe insulation containing Kaylo, Thermobestos, and other asbestos-containing products
Working with asbestos-containing block and blanket insulation on boilers and turbines from Johns-Manville and Armstrong World Industries
Mixing asbestos-containing insulating cements and plasters — work that released large quantities of airborne fibers
Cutting and fitting pre-formed asbestos pipe covering to length

Sawing and cutting asbestos pipe covering without respiratory protection is documented in industrial hygiene literature as generating extremely high airborne fiber concentrations. Insulators at Will County during the 1950s through 1980s may have experienced among the most significant asbestos exposures of any trade on site.

Pipefitters and Steamfitters

Pipefitters and steamfitters working through Plumbers and Pipefitters UA Local 562 and related unions worked directly on the high-pressure steam, condensate, and feed-water systems at the core of plant operations. Their work may have exposed them to asbestos-containing materials through:

Breaking pipe flanges sealed with asbestos-containing gaskets from Garlock Sealing Technologies and Armstrong World Industries — disturbing and releasing asbestos fibers in the process
Removing asbestos pipe insulation — including Thermobestos and Kaylo products — to reach pipe sections for repair or replacement
Working in proximity to insulators simultaneously installing or removing asbestos insulation — bystander exposure that occupational health literature documents as a recognized and significant pathway
Installing and removing valve packing made from asbestos-containing materials from Johns-Manville and Garlock

Pipefitters at large coal-fired power plants often worked in confined spaces — within boiler structures, pipe chases, and equipment rooms — where limited ventilation may have concentrated airborne fibers significantly above open-air levels.

Boilermakers

Boilermakers built, repaired, and maintained steam boilers — arguably the most asbestos-intensive equipment at the facility. Their work may have included:

Refractory and boiler casing work requiring direct contact with or proximity to heavily insulated boiler surfaces containing products from Johns-Manville
Boiler tube replacement and welding — requiring access through asbestos-insulated boiler casings
Cutting and fitting asbestos refractory materials within boiler fireboxes
Working with rope and packing materials allegedly containing asbestos from Garlock and Johns-Manville

Electricians and Instrumentation Technicians

Electricians and instrument technicians at the Will County Station may have been exposed to asbestos-containing materials through work on older switchgear, control panels, and instrumentation that may have contained asbes