About Paris (WI) Power Station

Facility Overview and Location

Paris Power Station is a coal-fired electrical generating facility located near Union Grove in Racine County, Wisconsin, operated by We Energies (Wisconsin Electric Power Company). Like virtually every large-scale power generation facility built during the mid-twentieth century, this station was constructed and maintained using asbestos-containing materials — mineral fiber products selected specifically for their heat resistance, durability, and insulating properties.

Workers who labored at this facility over the decades may have encountered asbestos-containing materials throughout the plant. The regulatory and design standards governing power plant construction during the facility’s original buildout — including decisions by equipment manufacturers — frequently specified asbestos-containing insulation and fire-resistant products.

Paris Power Station sits within the broader industrial corridor of the upper Midwest. Workers who traveled between union jobs — insulators, pipefitters, boilermakers, and electricians who moved between Wisconsin, Illinois, and Missouri for contract and maintenance work — may have accumulated asbestos exposures at multiple facilities across state lines. The Mississippi River industrial corridor, stretching from St. Louis and the Metro East Illinois region northward through Wisconsin, was home to a concentration of coal-fired power stations, chemical plants, steel mills, and refineries where asbestos-containing materials were reportedly ubiquitous.

Workers with exposure histories spanning multiple states — including Missouri facilities such as AmerenUE’s Labadie Energy Center in Franklin County and Portage des Sioux Energy Center in St. Charles County, or Illinois facilities such as Granite City Steel in Madison County — may have legal options in more than one jurisdiction.

If any part of your work history includes Missouri facilities or Missouri union dispatch, your case may be governed by Missouri law — and the August 28, 2026 deadline imposed by pending legislation HB1649 may directly affect your claim. Call a Wisconsin asbestos attorney today to protect your rights before that window closes.

Occupations With Asbestos Exposure Risk

Workers at Paris Power Station may have been exposed to asbestos-containing materials in the course of their regular job duties. Exposure risk was not limited to those who directly handled asbestos-containing products — workers in proximity to other trades performing asbestos-disturbing tasks faced secondary exposure as well.

Thermal Insulation Workers (Insulators)

Insulators — often members of Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1 (St. Louis) and other affiliated locals of the International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers — were among the most heavily exposed workers in the power generation industry. Local 1, based in St. Louis, represented workers dispatched to power stations and industrial facilities throughout Missouri, southern Illinois, and the broader Mississippi River industrial corridor, including members who may have worked at Wisconsin facilities during major construction and outage projects.

These workers reportedly handled asbestos-containing materials by:

  • Applying pipe insulation to steam lines, feedwater lines, and condensate return lines, allegedly using pipe covering and block insulation products
  • Installing boiler insulation around boiler drums, headers, and associated equipment with asbestos-containing products and similar manufacturers
  • Insulating turbine casings and steam admission equipment with products such as calcium silicate pipe insulation and Thermobestos
  • Removing and replacing deteriorated insulation during maintenance outages, reportedly disturbing decades-old asbestos-containing materials already in place
  • Mixing and applying asbestos-containing insulating cement by hand, generating significant airborne fiber

Pipefitters and Steamfitters

Pipefitters and steamfitters working under the auspices of UA Local 562 (St. Louis) and similar affiliates worked throughout steam and condensate systems and may have encountered asbestos-containing materials throughout the facility. UA Local 562 dispatches members to major industrial and utility projects throughout Missouri and the Metro East Illinois region, including members who may have worked at out-of-state facilities such as Paris Power Station during large-scale outages or construction projects.

These workers may have been exposed to asbestos-containing materials when:

  • Cutting, threading, and fitting pipe where existing asbestos-containing insulation, and other manufacturers was allegedly present
  • Installing and replacing compressed asbestos sheet gaskets at pipe flanges, allegedly supplied by gaskets and packing and similar manufacturers
  • Working with valve stem packing in high-temperature valves, which reportedly contained asbestos fiber
  • Disturbing existing insulation to access pipe joints, valves, and flanges for repair, potentially releasing fibers from products installed decades earlier
  • Working alongside insulators performing simultaneous insulation work, creating secondary asbestos exposure

Boilermakers

Boilermakers performed construction, installation, maintenance, and repair of the boilers at the facility’s core. Members of Boilermakers Local 27 (St. Louis) and similar Wisconsin affiliates may have been dispatched to Paris Power Station during major construction, outage, and repair projects. They may have been exposed to asbestos-containing materials when:

  • Handling boiler block insulation and refractory materials allegedly containing asbestos fiber
  • Working with boiler cement and castable refractories used to seal and insulate boiler casings, reportedly supplied by and similar manufacturers
  • Installing rope and cloth gaskets containing asbestos fiber in boiler doors, access hatches, and observation ports
  • Assembling boiler casing panels incorporating asbestos-containing board products such as those allegedly manufactured by and ceiling tile
  • Insulating turbine equipment connected to boiler systems with asbestos-containing materials and similar suppliers

Electricians

Electricians worked throughout the facility where asbestos-containing materials appeared in both electrical and thermal applications. They may have been exposed when:

  • Installing and maintaining electrical wire and cable — certain older cables reportedly contained asbestos braiding or insulation
  • Working with arc chutes and electrical switchgear that allegedly used asbestos-containing materials for arc suppression
  • Lining electrical panels and switchgear enclosures with asbestos board products as fire barriers
  • Working near insulated pipe and high-temperature equipment while insulators and other trades actively disturbed asbestos-containing materials nearby

Additional Trades and Workers

Other workers at Paris Power Station who may have been exposed to asbestos-containing materials include:

  • Millwrights — installing and maintaining heavy mechanical equipment and other manufacturers, reportedly in environments where asbestos-containing materials were present
  • Painters — surface coating work on insulated equipment and piping, potentially applying asbestos-containing paints and coatings that were standard in the industry
  • Laborers — general facility maintenance and equipment handling, including work in proximity to disturbed asbestos-containing insulation
  • Maintenance crews — performing routine repairs and inspections throughout systems reportedly insulated with asbestos-containing products
  • Contractors and temporary workers — performing specialized tasks during facility outages and expansion projects, often without adequate asbestos safety training or warning

Many of the trades represented at Paris Power Station were union workers whose careers spanned multiple facilities and multiple states. A boilermaker who may have been exposed at Paris Power Station may have also accumulated alleged exposures at Labadie Energy Center in Franklin County, Missouri, or at Granite City Steel in Madison County, Illinois. The full scope of a worker’s exposure history matters enormously in asbestos litigation, and experienced Missouri and Illinois asbestos attorneys routinely reconstruct multi-site, multi-state exposure histories for their clients.

If your work history includes any Missouri facility — even a single outage or short-term contract job — you may have Missouri compensation rights that are directly threatened by HB1649’s August 28, 2026 deadline. Every month of delay narrows your options. Call an experienced Wisconsin asbestos attorney today.

General Equipment at Paris (WI) Power 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.

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 Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (Wisconsin DNR) 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 Wisconsin DNR 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 ›

⚠️ Critical Filing Deadline

Wisconsin law gives mesothelioma and asbestos-disease victims 3 years from the date of medical diagnosis to file a personal injury lawsuit (Wis. Stat. § 893.54). For wrongful death claims after an asbestos-related death, the filing window is 3 years from the date of death (Wis. Stat. § 893.54). Miss either deadline by a single day and the right to file is permanently gone. No exceptions, no extensions.

About the two deadlines: Wisconsin keeps the personal-injury clock (Wis. Stat. § 893.54) and the wrongful-death clock (Wis. Stat. § 893.54) on separate tracks. The 3 years personal-injury deadline runs from the date of diagnosis and applies to the diagnosed person's own claim while they are alive. The 3 years wrongful-death deadline runs from the date of death and applies to surviving family members. The two are independent — preserving one does not extend the other, and an asbestos attorney with experience in Wisconsin can keep both options open as the situation evolves.

The personal-injury clock runs from the date of medical diagnosis — not from the date of asbestos exposure. Mesothelioma can take 20 to 50 years to develop after exposure. Many workers are only now receiving diagnoses from exposures that occurred decades ago.

Treat the 3 years deadline as a hard outer limit, not a planning horizon.

⚠️ Why You Must Act Now

Wisconsin's filing window may sound like ample time. It is not. Every month that passes after a mesothelioma diagnosis is a month in which your case gets harder to build and your options narrow.

Witnesses Become Harder to Reach

The tradespeople who worked alongside mesothelioma victims at facilities of this era are now in their 70s and 80s. Witnesses from many years ago are harder and harder to contact by the day — coworkers who can testify about which asbestos-containing materials were used, who supplied them, and how the work was done are increasingly difficult to locate. Once first-hand testimony becomes unavailable, that record is gone.

Records Disappear

Employment records, union records, purchasing records, and product invoices that document exactly which asbestos-containing materials were used at this facility are being lost every year. Plants close. Corporate owners change. Storage facilities are cleared. Records that existed five years ago may not exist today.

Mesothelioma Cases Are Complex to Build

Identifying every responsible manufacturer and every jobsite across a tradesperson's career requires intensive investigation by experienced toxic-tort counsel. A case against the manufacturers who supplied asbestos-containing materials to this facility may involve dozens of defendants. That investigation takes time that waiting families do not have.

Asbestos Trust Fund Claims Run on a Separate Track

More than 60 asbestos bankruptcy trusts exist to compensate victims whose exposures came from manufacturers that have since gone bankrupt — including the Manville Personal Injury Settlement Trust, established after the 1982 Johns-Manville bankruptcy. Each trust has its own claim forms, exposure criteria, documentation requirements, and processing timelines. Pursuing trust-fund compensation in parallel with a lawsuit takes months. The trust-fund process should start now, not after you decide whether to file suit.

What To Do Next

If you or a family member has been diagnosed with mesothelioma, asbestosis, or another asbestos-related disease — and you worked at this facility, lived with someone who did, or worked at neighboring industrial sites in the corridor — the practical next steps are:

  1. Speak with an asbestos attorney with experience in Wisconsin. The first conversation is free, confidential, and creates no obligation. An experienced attorney will help you understand which trust-fund claims may apply, which civil claims are viable, and what documentation you should start gathering.
  2. Gather what you can about your work history. Pay stubs, W-2s, union cards, photographs, names of coworkers, and dates of employment all become important evidence. The WorkChain widget on this page can help you organize and email yourself a copy of your facility list.
  3. Preserve your medical records. Pathology reports, biopsy results, imaging, and pulmonary-function tests all become part of the legal record. Ask your treating physicians for full copies of everything in your chart.
  4. Identify household members who may also have been exposed. Spouses who laundered work clothing and children who hugged a parent returning from the plant are eligible for secondary-exposure claims when they have been diagnosed with an asbestos-related disease.
  5. Act before the filing deadline runs. Wisconsin's statute of limitations is a hard outer limit. Even if you are still in the middle of treatment decisions, beginning the legal process early preserves your options.

Get a free case evaluation from an asbestos attorney with experience in Wisconsin →

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.