About Venice Power Plant Venice Illinois
The Venice Power Plant operated in Venice, Illinois — Madison County, just across the Mississippi River from St. Louis in the Metro East region. It generated up to 586 megawatts of electricity, primarily on natural gas, and served as a key facility in the greater St. Louis power grid.
Who Owned and Operated It?
- Union Electric Co. — the Missouri-based utility that owned and operated the facility for decades
- Ameren Corp. — the successor company that absorbed Union Electric
- AmerenEnergy Generating Co. — an Ameren subsidiary connected to facility operations
Venice sits at the heart of the Mississippi River industrial corridor — one of the most heavily industrialized stretches of waterway in North America, running from St. Louis south through the Metro East. This corridor concentrated asbestos-intensive industries on both sides of the river for most of the twentieth century. On the Missouri side, facilities including Labadie Energy Center, Portage des Sioux Power Plant, Monsanto Chemical operations, and the industrial complex at Granite City Steel employed many of the same tradespeople who worked at Venice. Workers in this region routinely accumulated asbestos exposure across multiple Missouri and Illinois sites over the course of a single career.
The plant employed hundreds of skilled tradespeople throughout its operational life — including members of Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1 out of St. Louis, Plumbers and Pipefitters UA Local 562, and Boilermakers Local 27 — concentrated especially during turnarounds, the planned maintenance shutdowns when workers flooded the most asbestos-contaminated areas of the facility.
Asbestos-containing materials appeared throughout the Venice Power Plant in:
- Pipe insulation — calcium silicate pipe insulation and Thermobestos calcium silicate pipe covering wrapped around steam lines throughout the facility
- Boiler insulation and refractory materials — block and blanket insulation and spray-applied fireproofing spray-applied fireproofing on boiler casings and fireboxes
- Gaskets — gaskets and packing compressed asbestos sheet gaskets and Cranite gasket material at every flange connection, valve body, pump housing, and heat exchanger
- Valve and pump packing — gaskets and packing braided asbestos rope packing in valve stems and pump shafts throughout the facility’s high-pressure systems
- Thermal block insulation — Thermobestos and high-temperature pipe insulation pre-formed block on turbine casings, high-pressure steam headers, and exhaust systems
- Electrical insulation — asbestos cloth, tape, and board in switchgear, panel boxes, and cable trays
- Expansion joints — woven asbestos fabric bellows where piping needed flexibility under thermal expansion
- Floor tile and ceiling tile — and ceiling tile asbestos-containing vinyl floor tile and ceiling materials in control rooms and auxiliary buildings
- Fireproofing — spray-applied fireproofing spray-applied asbestos on structural steel throughout the main building
Trades with the Heaviest Asbestos Exposure
Workers in the following trades faced direct, repeated contact with asbestos-containing materials including calcium silicate pipe insulation, Thermobestos, spray-applied fireproofing, and gaskets and packing:
- Boilermakers — members of Boilermakers Local 27 who worked inside and around boiler systems packed with asbestos refractory and spray-applied fireproofing insulation. Many of these same members worked across the river at Labadie Energy Center and Portage des Sioux, accumulating exposures at multiple Mississippi River corridor facilities throughout their careers
- Pipefitters — members of Plumbers and Pipefitters UA Local 562 who cut, removed, and replaced calcium silicate pipe insulation-insulated steam lines and repacked gaskets and packing valve packing throughout the facility. UA Local 562 members regularly crossed between Illinois and Missouri jobsites, working at Venice, Labadie, and Monsanto operations in the same years
- Insulators — members of Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1 who applied and removed Thermobestos pipe insulation and block insulation throughout the plant. Local 1’s jurisdiction covered both sides of the river, and its members worked at virtually every major facility in the corridor — including Portage des Sioux, Granite City Steel, and the Monsanto Chemical complex in Sauget
- Electricians — worked with asbestos-containing board, tape, and cloth in switchgear and cable systems
- Millwrights — maintained turbines and mechanical systems surrounded by high-temperature pipe insulation block and gaskets and packing materials
Family Members: Secondary Asbestos Exposure and Missouri Legal Rights
Exposure did not end at the plant gate. Workers carried fibers from calcium silicate pipe insulation, Thermobestos, spray-applied fireproofing, and gaskets and packing home on their clothing, hair, and skin. Many lived in the St. Louis Metro area — in Granite City, Alton, Collinsville, and across the river in St. Louis County and St. Louis City — bringing contaminated work clothes into family homes every shift. Family members who:
- Laundered work clothes saturated with and asbestos dust
- Greeted workers at the door before contaminated clothing was removed
- Lived in the same household as insulators, pipefitters, or boilermakers
…were exposed to the same fibers that caused mesothelioma and asbestosis in workers. Secondary exposure is legally compensable under Missouri law and has been recognized by courts in both Madison County, Illinois and St. Louis City Circuit Court. Family members in this situation should speak with an asbestos attorney in Missouri about eligibility to file an asbestos lawsuit or access asbestos trust fund distributions.
General Equipment at Venice Power Plant Venice 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.
The following 2 project notification(s) are documented with the Illinois EPA (NESHAP program) for Ameren Missouri in Festus. These are public regulatory records.
| Project ID | Year | Site / Building | Operation | ACM Removed | Contractor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A8955-2025 | 2025 | Ameren Rush Island Power Plant | Demolition | 25lf frbl TSI, 120sf frbl tank insul, 680lf frbl closth wire insul, 136sf frb… | American Asbestos Abatement dba Midwest Service Group |
| 8696-2017 | 2017 | Rush Island Auxillary Service Building-south side | Demolition | TSI, roof drip edge (TSI-300lf,rf-1200lf) | 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.