About Meramec Power Plant Saint Louis Missouri
If you worked at the Meramec Power Plant in St. Louis, Missouri — particularly in a skilled trade between 1953 and 2016 — you may have been exposed to asbestos-containing materials during one of the most heavily documented periods of coal-fired power plant asbestos use in American history. Asbestos causes mesothelioma, lung cancer, and asbestosis — diseases that typically appear 20 to 50 years after exposure. If you have been diagnosed with an asbestos-related disease, or lost a family member to one, Missouri law gives you the right to file a legal claim. Missouri’s 5-year statute of limitations runs from the date of diagnosis — not the date of exposure. With —
The Meramec Power Plant was a coal-fired steam generating station on the Meramec River in St. Louis County, Missouri. It operated for 63 years — from 1953 through 2016 — and was among the largest power generation facilities in the St. Louis metropolitan area. The plant was part of the broader Mississippi River industrial corridor shared by Missouri and Illinois, a region that includes Labadie Power Plant, Portage des Sioux Power Plant, and the industrial complex around Granite City, Illinois — all facilities where asbestos-containing materials were reportedly present in substantial quantities during the same era.
Basic Facility Information
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Official Name | Meramec Power Plant |
| Location | St. Louis, Missouri (Meramec River corridor) |
| Operations Began | 1953 |
| Operations Ceased | 2016 |
| Generating Capacity | 137.5 MW |
| Fuel Type | Coal (steam-generating station) |
| Original Owner/Operator | Union Electric Company |
| Subsequent Owner/Operator | Ameren Corporation |
| Operational Lifespan | Approximately 63 years |
Ownership and Operations
Union Electric Company built and operated Meramec beginning in 1953, serving the St. Louis region and broader Missouri territory throughout the twentieth century. In 1997, Union Electric merged with CIPSCO Inc. to form Ameren Corporation, which operated Meramec until the plant closed in 2016. Ameren cited aging infrastructure, environmental compliance costs, and competition from natural gas generation as reasons for closure. The same Union Electric and Ameren operational footprint extended to Labadie Power Plant in Franklin County and Portage des Sioux Power Plant in St. Charles County. Workers who moved between these facilities during their careers — as was common for trades workers in the region — may have accumulated asbestos-containing material exposures across multiple sites along the Missouri and Mississippi River corridors. Each separate exposure site may support independent legal claims.
Why the 63-Year Operational Window Matters
Workers present at Meramec during any of the following phases may have been exposed to asbestos-containing materials:
- Original construction (1953)
- Routine operational maintenance (1953–2016)
- Major renovation and overhaul outages
- Decommissioning and demolition (2016 onward)
Many former Meramec workers are now in their 60s, 70s, and 80s — precisely the age range when asbestos-related diseases most commonly manifest. Workers who also performed work at other facilities in the Mississippi River industrial corridor — including Monsanto Chemical operations in Sauget and East St. Louis, Illinois, and Granite City Steel in Granite City, Illinois — may have sustained compounding exposures across multiple job sites. Each site may support a separate claim. If you or a family member has been diagnosed with mesothelioma or another asbestos-related disease and worked at Meramec — even decades ago — Missouri law still gives you the right to file. But with It may be legally essential. —
General Equipment at Meramec Power Plant Saint Louis 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.
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:
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.
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.