By Michael Throneberry, founder of Throneberry Law Group
For most of the twentieth century, the coal-fired Waukegan Generating Station stood on the Lake Michigan shore and powered northern Illinois. The boilers, turbines, and steam lines that ran the plant were packed with asbestos, and the workers who built and maintained it breathed those fibers in for decades.
At Throneberry Law Group, we help Waukegan and Lake County families connect a mesothelioma diagnosis to a specific job site like the Waukegan station. Michael Throneberry founded the firm after losing his father-in-law to mesothelioma, and he brings an engineer’s eye to tracing where exposure happened. We work as part of a statewide team of Illinois mesothelioma lawyers.
The Waukegan Station on the Lakefront
Commonwealth Edison ran the power plant on Waukegan’s lakefront for generations, and earlier owners included North Shore Electric and the Public Service Company of Northern Illinois. Units were added from the 1920s through the late 1950s, and the plant burned coal until it retired in 2022. A station like this ran on heat and high-pressure steam, and for most of its life the cheapest way to contain both was asbestos.
Asbestos insulated the boilers and turbines, wrapped miles of steam and water piping, and sealed the pumps and valves throughout the plant. Every repair, overhaul, and inspection disturbed it.
Who Was Exposed at the Plant
Exposure at a power plant reached almost every trade, and it hit hardest during the shutdowns and overhauls when old insulation came out. The workers at highest risk included:
Boilermakers: who welded, cut, and repaired asbestos-insulated boilers and precipitators
Pipefitters and insulators: who installed and tore out asbestos pipe covering and block insulation
Machinists and mechanics: who serviced turbines, pumps, and valves sealed with asbestos gaskets and packing
Laborers and maintenance crews: who swept up asbestos dust and debris during overhauls
Outside contractors who came in for major jobs were exposed alongside the plant’s own crews, often without any warning or protection.
Asbestos Products Identified at the Station
The trusts and sworn worker testimony identify the asbestos that ran the Waukegan station. Babcock and Wilcox, Combustion Engineering, Riley Stoker, and Foster Wheeler built the boilers, each insulated with asbestos block and cement. Yarway valves used asbestos packing, Harbison-Walker refractory lined the fireboxes, and Owens Corning and Eagle-Picher insulating products covered the piping. When these trusts approve the station as an exposure site, they are admitting their asbestos was installed here.
Illnesses Linked to Power-Plant Asbestos
Breathing asbestos fiber can cause mesothelioma, asbestosis, and lung cancer. These diseases take decades to surface, so federal health agencies note that signs of mesothelioma may not appear until 30 to 40 years after exposure. Many former Waukegan station workers are only now learning that a diagnosis traces back to the plant.
Take-Home Asbestos Exposure
The plant’s asbestos did not stay inside the fence. It settled into work clothes and hair and rode home with the crews each night, so the spouse who laundered a boilermaker’s coveralls and the child who met a parent at the door could breathe the same fibers. Illinois recognizes these take-home claims, and a family member who never worked a shift at the station may still have a case.
How We Reconstruct a Power-Plant Case
Power-plant cases turn on which products a worker was near and when. We pull employment and union records, Social Security earnings statements, and the recollections of former coworkers to place a client at the Waukegan station and beside specific boilers, turbines, and insulation brands. Utilities kept detailed contractor and outage records, and that paper trail often shows exactly whose products filled the plant during a given overhaul, which is how we identify the right defendants decades later.
Signs to Watch and Steps to Take
If you spent time at the Waukegan station, note the years, your trade, and the units you worked on. A cough that lingers, chest pain, or shortness of breath deserves a doctor’s attention, and it is worth mentioning the asbestos history. Mesothelioma is easier to act on when it is found early, and reviewing a possible claim with us costs nothing.
Compensation That May Be Available
A successful claim can cover medical bills, lost income, and the toll the disease takes on a family. Trust payments and lawsuit recoveries are often pursued together, and for many former plant workers that combination is what makes a real difference. There is no fee unless we recover for you.
Veterans and Multi-Site Workers
Many who worked the Waukegan station also served in the military or moved among other Illinois power plants and factories over a career. That broader history can open additional avenues, including veterans’ benefits and claims tied to other sites, that a single job would never reveal. When we take a case, we look at the whole working life rather than one plant, because the fuller the picture, the more responsible companies we can usually identify and the stronger the recovery for the family.
Legal Options for Waukegan Station Workers
A power-plant case usually targets the companies that made the asbestos products, not the utility or the job site. That includes boiler and insulation makers such as Babcock and Wilcox and Foster Wheeler, many of which set up bankruptcy trusts that still pay claims. We pursue those trusts and any solvent defendants together to recover full compensation.
Waukegan Asbestos Attorneys at Throneberry Law Group
The Waukegan station kept the lights on for generations, but the asbestos inside it left many families facing a hard diagnosis. We pair detailed jobsite investigation with the personal commitment of an attorney who understands this loss firsthand.
Our cases run on a contingency fee, we travel to you, and we serve Spanish-speaking families. If you or a family member worked here, start a free, no-obligation case review through our online contact form.