About Wilson Station | Centertown, KY
Workers at Wilson Station in Centertown, Kentucky may have been exposed to asbestos-containing materials throughout the facility’s operating life. Big Rivers Electric Corporation ran this coal-fired plant during the decades when asbestos-containing materials were standard in power generation — and when manufacturers were actively concealing documented evidence that those materials caused fatal disease.
If you developed mesothelioma, asbestosis, or asbestos-related lung cancer after working at Wilson Station, you may have a legal claim against the manufacturers who supplied those materials. Many Wilson Station workers were members of Kentucky and Illinois union locals who traveled to Kentucky jobsites — and Kentucky’s 1-year statute of limitations under KRS § 413.140(1)(a) means that legal options may remain open depending on your circumstances.
This page identifies the trades at risk, the asbestos-containing products allegedly present at Wilson Station, and the legal options available to workers across the Mississippi River industrial corridor — including Missouri and Illinois residents who worked at this facility.
Wilson Station is a coal-fired generating facility in Centertown, Ohio County, Kentucky, operated by Big Rivers Electric Corporation — a generation and transmission rural electric cooperative headquartered in Henderson, Kentucky. The facility operated from approximately the 1940s onward, placing its construction and peak operational years squarely within the era of heaviest industrial asbestos use.
Big Rivers serves member distribution cooperatives across western Kentucky. Wilson Station drew both direct company employees and specialty contract workers from multiple trades — including members of Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1 (St. Louis), UA Local 562 (St. Louis pipefitters and steamfitters), and Boilermakers Local 27 (St. Louis), who reportedly traveled to Kentucky jobsites from across the Mississippi River industrial corridor that runs through Missouri, Illinois, and Kentucky.
Workers who traveled from Missouri and Illinois power plant jobsites — including those at AmerenUE’s Labadie Energy Center, Ameren’s Portage des Sioux plant, or facilities in the Granite City, Illinois industrial belt — to work at Wilson Station may have faced cumulative exposure across multiple sites.
General Equipment at Wilson Station | Centertown, KY
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 Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection (Kentucky DEP) 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 Kentucky DEP 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:
Critical Filing Deadline & Next Steps
Kentucky law gives mesothelioma and asbestos-disease claimants 1 year from the date of medical diagnosis to file a personal-injury lawsuit (KRS § 413.140). For wrongful-death claims after an asbestos-related death, the filing window is 1 year from the date of death (KRS § 413.180). 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 Kentucky 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.
Cross-State & Regional Corridor Workers
Wilson Station did not exist in isolation. The coal-fired generating facilities along and near the Mississippi River — from Labadie, Missouri and Portage des Sioux, Missouri through Alton and Granite City, Illinois and into western Kentucky — shared a common workforce of union insulators, pipefitters, boilermakers, and electricians who moved between jobsites throughout their careers.
Missouri and Illinois residents who worked at Wilson Station often also worked at:
- Labadie Energy Center (Franklin County, Missouri) — AmerenUE’s largest coal plant, where asbestos-containing materials were allegedly present in boilers, turbines, and steam systems throughout its operational life
- Portage des Sioux Power Plant (St. Charles County, Missouri) — where workers may have been exposed to asbestos-containing insulation and refractory materials from similar manufacturers
- Monsanto Chemical facilities (St. Louis County and St. Clair County, Illinois) — where insulators and pipefitters allegedly encountered asbestos-containing materials in chemical process equipment
- Granite City Steel (Madison County, Illinois) — where boilermakers and insulators may have been exposed to asbestos-containing refractory and insulation materials in steel production environments
Workers with cumulative exposure across multiple Mississippi River corridor facilities may have stronger claims that account for total fiber burden. Missouri and Illinois attorneys handling Wilson Station claims routinely evaluate multi-site exposure histories.
If you worked at Wilson Station and one or more of these facilities, the time to document that exposure history and consult an asbestos attorney kentucky is now.
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)
- Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection 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.