About Powerton Generating Station Tazewell County Illinois

Location, Size, and Basic Facts

Powerton Generating Station sits along the Illinois River in Tazewell County, near Pekin, Illinois. Operated by Midwest Generations EME LLC, it is one of the largest coal-fired power plants in Illinois, with a generating capacity of 1,785.6 megawatts.

At that scale, Powerton required:

  • Enormous coal-fired boiler units — including boiler systems — generating steam at extreme temperatures and pressures
  • Miles of high-pressure steam piping insulated with Thermobestos and calcium silicate pipe insulation
  • Turbine halls housing massive generating equipment wrapped in spray-applied fireproofing and block insulation
  • Electrical switchgear, panel systems, and wiring throughout the plant
  • Mechanical systems requiring gaskets and packing and Cranite gaskets on every valve and flange

Every one of these systems relied on asbestos-containing materials during construction and throughout decades of operation. The same holds true for the large coal-fired facilities on the Missouri side of the corridor — Labadie Energy Center in Franklin County and Portage des Sioux Power Plant in St. Charles County — where the same manufacturers supplied the same products to the same union trades.

The Workforce That Built and Maintained the Plant

Powerton’s workforce was not just full-time plant operators. Rotating union crews came in for scheduled outages, maintenance shutdowns, and capital construction. These tradespeople worked side by side in enclosed spaces — boiler rooms, turbine decks, pipe chases, underground tunnels — where asbestos dust Thermobestos, calcium silicate pipe insulation, and ceiling tile pipe insulation insulation was a constant, invisible presence.

Trades represented at Powerton included:

  • International Brotherhood of Boilermakers locals from central Illinois, working alongside Boilermakers Local 27 members from St. Louis who traveled throughout the region for large industrial outages
  • United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters — including UA Local 562 out of St. Louis, whose members regularly crossed into Illinois for power plant shutdowns along the Mississippi and Illinois River corridors
  • Heat and Frost Insulators locals from central Illinois, working alongside Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1 in St. Louis, deployed to large industrial outages throughout the region — including Powerton, Labadie, and Portage des Sioux
  • **International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Their work was skilled, difficult, and essential. For many of them, it was also fatal.

The labor geography of this region matters directly for your legal claim. If you were a member of Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1, UA Local 562, or Boilermakers Local 27 and you worked shutdowns at Powerton, your Illinois exposure may support claims filed in Missouri courts — and potentially in Madison County or St. Clair County, Illinois, both of which have well-established asbestos dockets with track records of substantial verdicts and settlements.

An asbestos attorney needs time to evaluate which jurisdictions give you the strongest claims and the best path to full compensation.—

If you worked at Powerton Generating Station in Tazewell County, Illinois — or if a family member did — you need to understand what the power industry spent decades concealing: this plant was saturated with asbestos-containing materials for most of its operational history. , and supplied those materials knowing they were deadly long before any worker received a warning.

Powerton is a documented asbestos exposure site. , gaskets and packing, and have each been named in litigation as suppliers of asbestos-containing products that injured workers there. Public litigation records and federal databases — including those maintained by the Energy Information Administration and the EPA — confirm what experienced Illinois asbestos attorneys have known for years.

Your diagnosis date started a legal clock. It is running right now. Illinois law gives 5 years from that date — and Missouri

This guide is written for:

  • Former Powerton workers diagnosed with mesothelioma, asbestosis, or lung cancer
  • Spouses and children who carried asbestos home on their clothes — household and secondary exposure victims
  • Union members including Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1 (St. Louis), UA Local 562 (United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters, St. Louis), and Boilermakers Local 27 (St. Louis) who worked maintenance and construction shutdowns at Powerton
  • Workers who crossed the Mississippi River for Powerton shutdowns and returned to Missouri communities in St. Louis, St. Charles, and Franklin Counties
  • Anyone whose illness may be connected to asbestos exposure at this plant

**If you fall into any of these categories and you have a diagnosis, do not assume you have time to wait.The Mississippi River industrial corridor — stretching from the St. Louis metro area north through Alton, Granite City, Wood River, and into the Illinois River valley — created a shared labor market and a shared asbestos exposure history. Missouri union members traveled to Illinois job sites. Illinois workers crossed into Missouri. If you lived on either side of that river and worked the power and industrial plants along it, your exposure history spans both states, and your legal options may as well.

General Equipment at Powerton Generating Station Tazewell County 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.

Boilers View crosswalk › Steam Turbines View crosswalk › Steam Traps View crosswalk › Condensers View crosswalk › Feedwater Heaters View crosswalk › Cooling Towers View crosswalk › Pipe Insulation View crosswalk › Block Insulation View crosswalk › Refractory Lining View crosswalk › Valves View crosswalk › Gaskets View crosswalk › Pumps 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 NESHAP asbestos abatement records have been located in Illinois EPA public records specifically naming this facility. If you believe regulatory records exist for this site, contact the Illinois EPA directly:

**Illinois EPA, Air Pollution Control Program PO Box 176, Jefferson City, MO 65102 (573) 751-4817

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:

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 ›

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.