About Greater Des Moines Power Station
If you worked at the Greater Des Moines Power Station in Pleasant Hill, Iowa and have since been diagnosed with mesothelioma, lung cancer, or asbestosis, your work history may entitle you to substantial legal compensation through:
- Personal injury lawsuits against product manufacturers and premises liability defendants
- Asbestos trust fund claims — accessing billions in bankruptcy trust assets reserved for asbestos victims
- Workers’ compensation claims (where applicable)
- Third-party claims against contractors or equipment suppliers
Mesothelioma develops 20 to 50 years after initial asbestos exposure. Workers first exposed in the 1950s, 1960s, or 1970s are receiving diagnoses right now — and many of them are Iowa residents.
This guide covers:
- Which workers at this facility may have been exposed to asbestos-containing materials, and under what conditions
- Why Iowa asbestos attorney firms focus heavily on power plant cases
- Iowa’s 2-year statute of limitations and why
Facility Overview
The Greater Des Moines Power Station is located in Pleasant Hill, Iowa, a suburban community east of Des Moines in Polk County. The station supplied electricity to central Iowa throughout the twentieth century, reportedly operating from the 1930s through the late 1970s and into the 1980s.
Construction and Operations During Peak Asbestos Use
The facility operated throughout the height of industrial asbestos use in the United States. Like virtually every coal-fired or steam-generating power plant built during this era, the Greater Des Moines Power Station was reportedly constructed using insulation practices that incorporated asbestos-containing materials from major manufacturers, including:
- — asbestos pipe insulation and thermal block
- — calcium silicate pipe insulation insulation products
- — gaskets and insulating materials
- — power generation specifications
- — thermal protection products
Expansion and renovation projects — often performed by rotating crews from Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1 and Plumbers and Pipefitters UA Local 562 — represent the periods when asbestos-containing materials use at power stations is most thoroughly documented in the historical record.
Many of those union members were Iowa and Illinois residents dispatched to Iowa job sites through their home locals. An experienced asbestos cancer lawyer in St. Louis can trace your multi-state exposure history and access applicable bankruptcy trust funds based on the products and manufacturers present at each facility where you worked.
General Equipment at Greater Des Moines Power Station
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 Iowa Department of Natural Resources (Iowa 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 Iowa 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
Iowa law gives mesothelioma and asbestos-disease claimants 2 years from the date of medical diagnosis to file a personal-injury lawsuit (Iowa Code § 614.1(2A)). For wrongful-death claims after an asbestos-related death, the filing window is 2 years from the date of death (Iowa Code § 614.1(2)). 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 Iowa 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
The Greater Des Moines Power Station was part of a broader post-World War II industrial buildout that stretched across the Upper Mississippi River corridor from Iowa through Illinois and Missouri. The same contractors, union locals, and insulation product lines that supplied Missouri and Illinois facilities also supplied Iowa facilities during the peak asbestos era.
Multi-State Union Dispatch: How Iowa workers Reached Iowa Facilities
Missouri and Illinois Union Locals with Iowa Dispatch History:
- Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1 (St. Louis, MO) — dispatched regularly to Midwest utility projects including Iowa facilities
- Plumbers and Pipefitters UA Local 562 (St. Louis, MO) — sent members statewide and interstate for steam system work
- Boilermakers Local 27 (St. Louis, MO) — specialized in high-risk boiler room work across the region
- Operating Engineers Local 148 (St. Louis, MO) — provided heavy equipment operators for facility maintenance and renovation
Comparable Missouri and Illinois Facilities with Documented Asbestos-Containing Materials:
- Labadie Energy Center (Franklin County, MO)
- Portage des Sioux Power Plant (St. Charles County, MO)
- Granite City Steel (Madison County, IL)
Missouri and Illinois residents dispatched to Iowa job sites during the peak asbestos era may carry exposure histories spanning multiple states, multiple facilities, and multiple product lines — all of which matter when identifying which bankruptcy trusts apply to your case.
Your Legal Rights: Multi-State Exposure and Iowa Trust Fund Claims
Your legal rights — including access to Iowa’s statute of limitations, Illinois court venues, and asbestos trust fund resources — remain fully intact regardless of where the exposure occurred. An asbestos attorney in Iowa can:
- File claims in your home state even though exposure occurred in Iowa
- Access all applicable bankruptcy trust funds, including trusts established by manufacturers whose products were reportedly installed at Iowa facilities
- Determine your best venue for maximizing compensation across Iowa courts, Illinois federal court, or Iowa litigation
- Protect your rights under Iowa’s 2-year asbestos statute of limitations
**This is critically important in light of
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)
- Iowa Department of Natural Resources 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.