About Crawford Generating Station
Location and Operator History
Crawford Station sat along the Embarras River in Crawford County, southeastern Illinois — a region built on industrial employment. Illinois Power operated Crawford Station as part of its fossil fuel generating fleet alongside comparable Missouri facilities: Labadie Energy Center (Franklin County), Portage des Sioux Power Plant (St. Charles County), and Sioux Energy Center (St. Charles County), all operated by Ameren UE and all carrying similar asbestos contamination profiles.
The ownership chain matters in litigation:
- Original operator: Illinois Power Company
- Successor: Ameren Corporation (acquisition, early 2000s)
- Legal significance: Successor liability attaches to corporate successors in asbestos litigation — Ameren is not insulated from claims arising from Illinois Power’s conduct
How Crawford Station Operated
Crawford Station was a coal-fired steam-electric generating station. Its operation required:
- Miles of high-temperature piping insulated with **calcium silicate pipe insulation insulation board, high-temperature pipe insulation pipe covering, and Thermobestos products
- Pressure vessels with **pipe insulation and spray-applied fireproofing spray-applied fireproofing
- Turbines and boilers sealed with **gaskets and packing asbestos sheet gaskets and braided packing
- Thermal insulation on all high-temperature surfaces manufactured by , and ceiling tile Hundreds of direct Illinois Power employees worked at Crawford Station. Thousands more — construction laborers, maintenance crews, and outside contractors from Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1 (St. Louis, MO), Plumbers and Pipefitters UA Local 562 (St. Louis, MO), and affiliated regional locals — cycled through the plant for outages, upgrades, and repairs. Contractor workers often faced the heaviest asbestos exposure of anyone at the facility, particularly when called in for emergency repairs or major outage work requiring rapid insulation removal.
Construction Phase — 1950s
- Insulators working with calcium silicate pipe insulation and high-temperature pipe insulation handled raw asbestos products in enclosed spaces with no ventilation and no protection
- Thermobestos and rigid asbestos blocks were installed before HVAC systems were operational
- Pipefitters installed thousands of gaskets and packing and Flexitallic gaskets at every flanged connection
- spray-applied fireproofing spray fireproofing atomized asbestos fibers throughout structural steel areas
- Exposure level: Studies document airborne concentrations 100 to 1,000 times modern permissible exposure limits during new insulation installation — among the heaviest of any work period
Early Operational Period — 1950s and 1960s
- Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1 members and contractor crews performed insulation removal and repair during maintenance outages
- “Rip-out” work — tearing out calcium silicate pipe insulation, high-temperature pipe insulation, and Thermobestos insulation before replacement — generated fiber releases far exceeding original installation work
- Pipefitters pulled old gaskets and packing and Flexitallic asbestos gaskets at every disassembly, cut new ones by hand, and repeated the process on thousands of connections
- Boilermakers removed asbestos-containing refractory to access boiler tubes and pressure parts
- Worker protection: None — no respiratory protection required, no manufacturer hazard warnings, no exposure monitoring
1970s Regulatory Transition
OSHA enacted its asbestos standard in 1972. At Crawford Station, enforcement was inconsistent, monitoring was inadequate, and worker notification was frequently absent. Asbestos already installed throughout the plant remained in service. Workers removing or disturbing calcium silicate pipe insulation, high-temperature pipe insulation, and Thermobestos insulation — along with gaskets and packing — remained at serious risk through the decade.
, ceiling tile, gaskets and packing, and Flexitallic** all knew about asbestos dangers by the early 1970s. They continued supplying materials to power plants. They failed to warn plant operators or workers.
1980s and Beyond
New asbestos insulation installation largely ceased after federal restrictions took hold. The hazard did not.
- gaskets and packing and Crane Packing valve packing replacement continued to expose Plumbers and Pipefitters UA Local 562 members and contract pipefitters through the 1980s and into the 1990s
- Disturbing old calcium silicate pipe insulation and high-temperature pipe insulation pipe insulation during unrelated repair work — cutting lines for modifications, replacing equipment, removing insulation to reach pipes — released fibers with no warning labels, no air monitoring, and no protective equipment issued
- Secondary exposure: Painters, electricians, and other trades working in the same areas inhaled fibers released by other workers — exposure that was real and legally cognizable even though those workers never touched asbestos directly
General Equipment at Crawford Generating Station
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.
The following 4 project notification(s) are documented with the Illinois EPA (NESHAP program) for Ameren Missouri in Labadie. These are public regulatory records.
| Project ID | Year | Site / Building | Operation | ACM Removed | Contractor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A6884-2015 | 2016 | 2016 O&M Ameren Labadie Power Station | OM | Will advise per project. | Envirotech, Inc. |
| A7273-2017 | 2017 | Ameren Labadie Power Station | Renovation | 800sf frbl TSI, 128sf n-f galbestos, 200lf frbl TSI, 20lf frbl gasket | Envirotech, Inc. |
| 5959-2013 | 2013 | Labadie Energy Center Microwave Bldg | Demolition | caulk, metal siding (asb contr=CENPRO) (NF I-550sf; NF II-91lf) | Plocher Construction Company Inc. |
| 11366-2022 | 2022 | Ameren Labadie Entrance Bridge | Demolition | none | Spirtas Wrecking Company |
Source: Illinois EPA, NESHAP Asbestos Abatement & Demolition/Renovation Notification Program — public regulatory records.
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.