About Lime Creek Power Station

Lime Creek Power Station sits along the Lime Creek watershed near Mason City, Iowa, in Cerro Gordo County. The facility reportedly operated as part of the electric power generation infrastructure serving north-central Iowa for decades — in a region whose industrial development closely mirrors the Mississippi River industrial corridor shared by Missouri and Illinois, where comparable generating stations including Ameren UE’s Labadie Energy Center (Franklin County, MO), Portage des Sioux Power Plant (St. Charles County, MO), Rush Island Energy Center (Jefferson County, MO), and Granite City Steel (Madison County, IL) built out intensive industrial capacity across the same mid-twentieth century decades.

Mason City and Cerro Gordo County built out significant industrial capacity during the twentieth century: agricultural processing, cement manufacturing, and electric power generation. Lime Creek Power Station, like comparable Missouri power plants such as Portage des Sioux Power Plant and Labadie Energy Center, reportedly depended on heat-resistant and insulating materials throughout construction and operation — many of which are alleged to have contained asbestos-containing materials under the construction and maintenance standards of the era.

Power generation facilities like Lime Creek were most intensively constructed, expanded, and renovated from approximately 1940 through the mid-1970s — precisely when asbestos use in industrial applications peaked. Workers employed at or contracted to Lime Creek Power Station during this period may have encountered the highest concentrations of asbestos-containing materials.

General Equipment at Lime Creek 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.

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 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:

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 ›

Who May Have Been Exposed at Lime Creek Power Station

Over its operational lifetime, the plant reportedly employed or contracted workers across multiple skilled trades:

  • Boilermakers (potentially affiliated with Boilermakers Local 27, St. Louis, MO, on regional contracts)
  • Pipefitters and steamfitters (potentially affiliated with Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1, St. Louis, MO; UA Local 562, St. Louis, MO; or regional locals)
  • Insulation workers (potentially affiliated with Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1 or Local 27, Kansas City, MO)
  • Electricians
  • Millwrights and machinists
  • Maintenance workers
  • Plant operators
  • Welders
  • Laborers

Boilermakers who worked on boiler installation, repair, and maintenance at Lime Creek Power Station may have been exposed to asbestos-containing insulation, refractory materials, and packing compounds used in boiler systems. Exposure risk was reportedly highest during original boiler installation (1940s–1960s), major re-tubing operations, removal and replacement of asbestos-containing insulation, and repair of degraded gaskets and packing materials. Workers affiliated with Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1 (St. Louis, MO), Heat and Frost Insulators Local 27 (Kansas City, MO), or UA Local 562 (St. Louis, MO) who performed pipe insulation, equipment insulation, and fireproofing work may have encountered concentrated levels of airborne asbestos fibers — particularly when cutting, trimming, or removing pre-formed pipe insulation products.

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

  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 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

That corridor context matters for workers and their families: skilled-trades workers routinely followed construction and maintenance contracts across state lines — from Mason City south through Iowa and into Iowa and Illinois. A worker’s full asbestos exposure history may span multiple facilities and multiple states. Contractors who moved between Lime Creek and Missouri or Illinois facilities during the same period — including work at Monsanto’s St. Louis area operations or Granite City Steel — may carry cumulative asbestos exposure histories spanning multiple states and multiple product sources.

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.