About UM-Rolla Power Plant
The Curators of the UM-Rolla — 1996 O&M Power Plant in Rolla, Missouri is an institutional power generation facility that historically used asbestos-containing materials in its operations. Power plants demand materials resistant to extreme heat, pressure, and constant wear, and asbestos was a preferred material for these applications, offering exceptional heat resistance, electrical insulation, and durability. At the UM-Rolla Power Plant, asbestos-containing materials are alleged to have been used extensively in power generation components, including pipe and boiler insulation products, calcium silicate insulation, and pipe insulation. Manufacturers widely distributed these products to institutional and industrial power facilities across Missouri and the broader Mississippi River industrial corridor during the mid-twentieth century.
Public regulatory records from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) NESHAP (National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants) program detail asbestos abatement projects at the UM-Rolla power plant in the mid-1990s. In January 1996, a renovation at the 1996 O&M Power Plant involved the abatement of 160 square feet of asbestos-containing material (ACM) and 260 linear feet of ACM, with Spray Services Inc. reportedly performing this work. In May 1996, another renovation removed 30 square feet of boiler insulation and 25 linear feet of pipe insulation that allegedly contained asbestos, also handled by Spray Services Inc. In February 1997, a renovation involved the abatement of 150 linear feet of pipe insulation, with J. Thomas & Company Inc. reportedly performing this work. These records confirm asbestos-containing boiler insulation and pipe insulation were present at the facility.
General Equipment at UM-Rolla Power Plant
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 Missouri Department of Natural Resources (Missouri 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.
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:
Who May Have Been Exposed at UM-Rolla Power Plant
Numerous trades working at the Curators of the UM-Rolla — 1996 O&M Power Plant may have been exposed to airborne asbestos fibers. When workers disturbed these materials during routine maintenance, repairs, renovations, or demolition, microscopic asbestos fibers could become airborne, leading to potential inhalation or ingestion by workers.
Trades and personnel who may have been at risk include: Insulators installing, repairing, or removing insulation products, with members of Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1 (St. Louis, MO) who may have been dispatched to the facility; Pipefitters installing, maintaining, or repairing piping systems who regularly worked with asbestos-containing pipe insulation and members of Plumbers and Pipefitters UA Local 562 (St. Louis, MO) who may have performed this work; Boilermakers constructing, maintaining, or repairing boilers who directly handled or worked near asbestos-containing boiler insulation, with members of Boilermakers Local 27 (St. Louis, MO) potentially involved; Electricians performing installations or repairs on electrical conduits and components; Maintenance Staff performing routine tasks throughout the plant who may have inadvertently disturbed asbestos-containing materials including gaskets and packing; and Contractors such as Spray Services Inc. and J. Thomas & Company Inc. identified in MDNR records who may have been exposed during renovations, repairs, or specialized projects.
Critical Filing Deadline & Next Steps
Missouri law gives mesothelioma and asbestos-disease claimants 5 years from the date of medical diagnosis to file a personal-injury lawsuit (Mo. Rev. Stat. § 516.120). For wrongful-death claims after an asbestos-related death, the filing window is 3 years from the date of death (Mo. Rev. Stat. § 537.100). 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 Missouri 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
Workers who moved between the UM-Rolla facility and regional power plants or industrial sites in the Missouri-Illinois industrial corridor may have encountered similar asbestos-containing product lines across multiple jobsites. Workers at comparable facilities along the Mississippi River corridor — including the Labadie Energy Center in Franklin County and the Portage des Sioux Power Plant in Missouri, as well as Monsanto in St. Louis and Granite City Steel in Granite City, Illinois — have documented extensive use of similar asbestos-containing products.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)
- Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) 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.