About Audrain Generating Station Vandalia Missouri

Workers at the Audrain Generating Station in Vandalia, Missouri — and contractors who performed construction, outage, and maintenance work there from the 1960s through the 1990s — may have been exposed to asbestos-containing materials that cause mesothelioma, lung cancer, and asbestosis. These diseases surface decades after exposure ends. Legal claims exist. Deadlines apply. If you worked at this facility or a similar Missouri industrial power plant and have been diagnosed with mesothelioma or another asbestos-related disease, a Missouri asbestos attorney can review your work history and exposure history to determine what legal options remain open to you. Missouri’s statute of limitations for asbestos personal injury claims is five years from the date of diagnosis under § 516.120 RSMo. That clock starts when a doctor gives you a diagnosis — not when symptoms first appeared.The window to act under current law is open now. Do not assume it stays open. —

The Audrain Generating Station is a natural gas and oil-fired peaking plant in Vandalia, Audrain County, Missouri. Simple-cycle peaking plants supply supplemental electricity during high-demand periods — running hard when the grid needs capacity, then sitting idle. **Operational facts:

  • Original owner/operator: Union Electric Company (construction through 2001)
  • Current owner/operator: Ameren Corporation (2001 to present)
  • Capacity: Approximately 102 megawatts
  • Location: Vandalia, Missouri — county seat of Audrain County, northeastern Missouri

Union Electric Company, headquartered in St. Louis, built and operated generating stations across Missouri and the Mississippi River industrial corridor — including the Labadie Energy Center (Franklin County), Portage des Sioux Power Plant (St. Charles County), and others. During the decades when asbestos-containing materials were standard in utility construction, Union Electric’s facilities — from the largest coal plants on the river to peaking stations like Audrain — were built and maintained using the same product families from the same manufacturers. In 2001, Union Electric reorganized under Ameren Corporation, which continues to operate the Audrain station. The Mississippi River industrial corridor — from Alton and Granite City, Illinois, through St. Louis and north along the Missouri side to Portage des Sioux and beyond — is one of the most heavily industrialized stretches of river in the United States. Workers moved between Union Electric facilities, steel mills including Granite City Steel (Madison County, Illinois), chemical complexes including Monsanto facilities in St. Louis County, and other heavy industrial employers throughout their careers. Asbestos-containing materials were endemic across this entire corridor. Local tradespeople and traveling contractors from the St. Louis metro area reportedly worked at this facility during construction, planned outages, and maintenance projects. Members of Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1 (St. Louis) and Plumbers and Pipefitters UA Local 562 (St. Louis) may have been dispatched to Audrain during major construction and outage work. —

General Equipment at Audrain Generating Station Vandalia Missouri

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 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.

No Missouri 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 & 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

  1. 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.
  2. Preserve medical records. Pathology reports, biopsy results, imaging, and pulmonary-function tests are central to both civil claims and trust-fund filings.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.

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.