About Pulliam Power Plant | Green Bay, WI | Wisconsin

The Missouri and Illinois region hosted some of America’s largest coal-fired electricity generating facilities and heavy industrial manufacturing centers. The Mississippi River — a historic industrial spine connecting St. Louis, St. Charles County, Jefferson County, and Franklin County on the Missouri side with Madison County, St. Clair County, and Jersey County on the Illinois side — provided cooling water, barge transportation for coal and raw materials, and a geographic anchor for the concentration of power plants, steel mills, refineries, and chemical plants that employed tens of thousands of workers from the 1920s through the 1990s.

Major Power Plants (Ameren UE & Regional Operators):

  • Labadie Energy Center (Franklin County, MO) — documented in EIA Form 860 plant data as a multi-unit coal facility with an extensive operational history; one of Missouri’s largest power-generating facilities
  • Portage des Sioux Power Plant (St. Charles County, MO) — major regional generation facility situated along the Mississippi River north of St. Louis
  • Sioux Energy Center (St. Charles County, MO) — coal-fired generation complex in the St. Charles County industrial zone
  • Rush Island Energy Center (Jefferson County, MO) — Ameren UE generation asset in Jefferson County, MO

Major Industrial Facilities Along the Missouri-Illinois Corridor:

  • Granite City Steel / U.S. Steel (Granite City, IL) — integrated steel manufacturing complex in Madison County, IL; one of the largest employers on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River industrial corridor
  • Laclede Steel (Alton, IL) — specialty steel production facility in Madison County, IL
  • Alton Box Board (Alton, IL) — industrial paper and materials manufacturing
  • Monsanto Chemical (Sauget, IL / St. Louis, MO) — large-scale chemical manufacturing operations spanning both sides of the Mississippi River; facilities in both Sauget (St. Clair County, IL) and St. Louis, MO
  • Shell Oil / Roxana Refinery (Wood River, IL) — petroleum refining complex in Madison County, IL
  • Clark Refinery (Wood River, IL) — petroleum refining operations in Madison County, IL

These facilities were built and expanded during the precise historical period when asbestos-containing materials were most heavily used in American industrial construction — and when manufacturers were most actively concealing health hazards from the workers handling their products.

Timeline of Construction & Operation:

  • 1920s–1950s: Original construction and major expansions incorporating asbestos-containing materials throughout all major systems at Missouri and Illinois facilities
  • 1940s–1970s: Peak employment across the Mississippi River corridor; workers may have faced sustained exposure from routine maintenance and unscheduled repairs at power plants and industrial facilities on both sides of the river
  • 1970s–1990s: Regulatory transition; OSHA and EPA asbestos standards took effect; older asbestos-containing materials installed in prior decades remained in place and posed ongoing exposure risks during maintenance, repair, and eventual abatement work

Coal-fired power plants operate on a straightforward principle: burning fuel generates extreme heat, which converts water to high-pressure steam, which drives turbines connected to electrical generators. That process creates extraordinary temperatures and pressures throughout every major system. Missouri and Illinois facilities like Labadie Energy Center, Portage des Sioux, and the industrial plants along the Madison County and St. Clair County riverfront operated continuously under these conditions for decades.

Temperature & Pressure Extremes at Missouri & Illinois Facilities:

  • Steam temperatures: 750°F to 1,000°F or higher in boiler systems at facilities including Labadie and Portage des Sioux
  • Boiler operating pressures: 1,500 to 2,500+ pounds per square inch
  • Turbine components: requiring insulation capable of maintaining heat differentials in rotating machinery operating continuously under load
  • Electrical systems: requiring materials resistant to both heat and electrical conductivity
  • Refinery processing systems at Wood River, IL: temperatures and pressures comparable to power generation equipment
  • Steel mill operations at Granite City Steel: extreme heat from furnaces and molten metal handling requiring sustained thermal management
  • Chemical processing systems at Monsanto (Sauget, IL / St. Louis, MO): high-temperature reaction vessels and piping systems requiring insulation throughout

General Equipment at Pulliam Power Plant | Green Bay, WI | Wisconsin

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 ›

Who May Have Been Exposed at Pulliam Power Plant | Green Bay, WI | Wisconsin

Workers at Missouri and Illinois facilities were represented by multiple skilled trade unions based primarily in St. Louis, which served as the regional hub for union labor deployed across the Mississippi River industrial corridor:

  • Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1 (St. Louis, MO) — thermal insulators dispatched to power plants and industrial facilities throughout Wisconsin and across the river into Madison County and St. Clair County, IL; members of Local 1 are alleged to have worked with asbestos-containing pipe covering, block insulation, and fitting insulation at Labadie, Portage des Sioux, Sioux Energy Center, Granite City Steel, and Monsanto facilities
  • Heat and Frost Insulators Local 27 (Kansas City, MO) — insulators serving Kansas City-area plants and western Wisconsin industrial facilities
  • UA Local 562 (Plumbers and Pipefitters, St. Louis, MO) — pipefitters and steamfitters dispatched to regional facilities on both sides of the Mississippi River; members allegedly performed pipe work and valve maintenance in the presence of asbestos-containing materials at Missouri power plants and Illinois industrial facilities
  • Boilermakers Local 27 (St. Louis, MO) — boilermakers performing construction, maintenance, and repair work on boilers and pressure vessels at power plants and industrial facilities throughout the Missouri and Illinois corridor; members are alleged to have worked in the immediate vicinity of deteriorating asbestos-containing refractory and insulation materials
  • Plumbers and Pipefitters UA Local 268 (Kansas City, MO) — Kansas City-area pipefitter workers serving western Wisconsin industrial facilities

Thousands of workers across these trades spent decades performing maintenance, repair, and construction work at Wisconsin and Illinois facilities while asbestos-containing materials were actively present and increasingly deteriorated.

⚠️ 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.

Cross-State & Regional Corridor Workers

Workers from both Missouri and Illinois regularly crossed state lines for union work, contract maintenance jobs, and construction projects at these facilities. Members of Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1 (St. Louis), UA Local 562 (Plumbers and Pipefitters, St. Louis), and Boilermakers Local 27 (St. Louis) are alleged to have worked at facilities on both sides of the Mississippi River throughout the peak asbestos-use era.

Missouri’s Mississippi River industrial corridor — stretching from Alton and Granite City, Illinois, across the river through St. Louis and extending to Franklin and Jefferson Counties, Missouri — concentrated tens of thousands of workers in power generation, steel manufacturing, petrochemical refining, and chemical production during the decades when asbestos-containing materials were most heavily deployed in American industry. Workers who crossed the river for union jobs, contract maintenance assignments, and construction projects, and tradespeople who worked both sides of the corridor, may have legal claims in both states simultaneously.

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.