General Equipment at Metro Water Reclamation District Cicero 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.

Industrial Boilers View crosswalk › Process Piping View crosswalk › Pipe Insulation View crosswalk › Block Insulation View crosswalk › Valves View crosswalk › Gaskets View crosswalk › Pumps View crosswalk › Heat Exchangers View crosswalk › Cooling Equipment View crosswalk ›

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:

Thermal System Insulation View crosswalk › Asbestos-Cement Board View crosswalk › Pipe Insulation View crosswalk › Roofing & Flashing View crosswalk › Spray Fireproofing View crosswalk › Floor Tile & Mastic View crosswalk › Ceiling Tile View crosswalk › Gaskets & Packing View crosswalk ›

Who May Have Been Exposed at Metro Water Reclamation District Cicero Illinois

If you held any of the following job titles at MWRD or a comparable water reclamation facility, you may have been exposed to asbestos-containing materials. Consult with an asbestos attorney Illinois now—do not wait for symptoms to worsen or a second opinion to come back.

Pipefitters and Plumbers

Pipefitters and plumbers installed, repaired, and maintained the extensive pipe networks running throughout Stickney and other MWRD plants. They cut pre-formed asbestos-containing pipe covering and stripped old insulation to access pipes underneath. Workers in this trade may have been exposed to fibers when handling asbestos-wrapped sections and aged pipe lagging. Pipefitters and plumbers appear among the most frequently diagnosed occupational groups in asbestos litigation nationwide and represent a significant portion of claims filed through asbestos trust funds in Missouri.

Insulators

Insulators applied, removed, and replaced asbestos-containing insulation on pipes, boilers, tanks, and equipment throughout the facility. Workers in this trade may have worked directly with products such as calcium silicate pipe insulation, Thermobestos, pipe insulation, and similar thermal insulation materials. Insulators are typically recorded among the highest occupational asbestos exposures of any trade because they handled friable materials directly, often in confined spaces with no ventilation.

Former members of Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1 (St. Louis), Heat and Frost Insulators Local 27 (Kansas City), and Chicago-area locals were particularly affected across Illinois water treatment facilities and have been well-represented in asbestos trust fund and litigation recoveries.

Boilermakers

Boilermakers built, repaired, and maintained the large boiler systems that powered treatment operations. They may have worked with asbestos-containing refractory cement and brick, boiler insulation blankets and lagging, asbestos rope, and gasket materials. Confined-space boiler work created conditions where fiber concentrations could reach extreme levels with no fresh air dilution. Product exposures may have included asbestos-containing materials from and

Electricians

Electricians ran conduit and wiring through walls and ceilings that reportedly contained asbestos-containing materials. They may have disturbed asbestos fireproofing when accessing electrical panels and service areas. Workers in this trade reportedly worked with asbestos-containing arc chutes, electrical insulation products, and switchgear components. Exposure risk increased substantially during renovation and repair work in aging sections of the plant.

Maintenance Mechanics and Millwrights

Maintenance mechanics and millwrights serviced pumps, compressors, motors, and rotating equipment throughout the facility. They may have been exposed when replacing asbestos-containing gaskets in flanged pipe connections and when removing asbestos-containing packing material from valve stems and pump seals. Much of this work was performed in confined mechanical spaces where disturbed fibers had nowhere to go.

Operating Engineers and Plant Operators

Operating engineers and plant operators spent long shifts monitoring equipment in pump rooms and boiler rooms—spaces where deteriorating insulation allegedly released fibers continuously. Chronic, long-duration exposure accumulated from hours spent daily in those contaminated mechanical spaces. Workers in this category sometimes dismissed their exposure because they weren’t the ones cutting insulation or pulling gaskets—but proximity to that work, shift after shift and year after year, is legally and medically recognized as a significant exposure pathway.

Additional Occupations at Risk

  • Painters who scraped, sanded, or wire-brushed surfaces containing asbestos-containing materials
  • Laborers who cleaned up debris or handled asbestos-containing waste
  • Carpenters and construction workers who drilled, cut, or demolished structures reportedly containing asbestos-containing materials
  • HVAC and sheet metal workers who maintained ventilation systems with asbestos-containing duct insulation
  • Supervisors and inspectors who spent extended time near deteriorating insulation

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

  1. 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.
  2. Preserve medical records. Pathology reports, biopsy results, imaging, and pulmonary-function tests are central to both civil claims and trust-fund filings.
  3. 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.
  4. 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:

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.