About Prairie Creek Generating Station
Facility Location and Primary Operator
Prairie Creek Generating Station sat along the Cedar River in Cedar Rapids, Linn County, Iowa. Interstate Power and Light Company (IP&L), a subsidiary of Alliant Energy Corporation, operated the facility and historically served a large portion of Iowa and the upper Midwest. The facility’s workforce reportedly drew from a broader regional labor pool that included Missouri and Illinois union members who traveled to Iowa job sites for major construction and maintenance turnarounds.
Operational Timeline: The Peak Asbestos Era (1950s–2000s)
Prairie Creek’s generating units were reportedly constructed during the post-World War II era of rapid utility expansion — the period occupational health researchers identify as the peak of industrial asbestos use in the United States. The station reportedly underwent multiple expansions and upgrade cycles over subsequent decades, following patterns documented at comparable facilities throughout the Mississippi River industrial corridor:
- Labadie Energy Center (Franklin County, MO) — operated by Ameren UE, documented in regulatory records for asbestos-containing material inventories
- Rush Island Energy Center (Jefferson County, MO) — documented in EPA enforcement and NESHAP abatement records
- Portage des Sioux Power Plant (St. Charles County, MO) — situated on the Mississippi directly across from the Illinois bank, routinely drew union labor from both states
- Granite City Steel (Granite City, IL) — a major subject of asbestos litigation across the river from St. Louis
- Monsanto Chemical (Sauget, IL/St. Louis, MO border) — extensively documented in occupational asbestos claims
These facilities represent the same construction era, the same manufacturer product lines, and the same union trades as Prairie Creek. A worker whose career spanned multiple facilities along this corridor may have accumulated exposure claims at several sites simultaneously.
Reported Timeline of Asbestos-Containing Material Use at Prairie Creek:
- 1950s–1960s: Initial construction and early expansions; reportedly documented use of asbestos-containing pipe covering from and, boiler insulation, and spray-applied fireproofing
- 1960s–1970s: Ongoing operations; insulation removal and replacement allegedly involving calcium silicate pipe insulation and Thermobestos products; turbine overhauls with asbestos-containing gaskets and packing from gaskets and packing and
- 1970s–1980s: Post-Clean Air Act retrofitting; potentially continued presence of legacy asbestos-containing materials; early industry-wide abatement projects beginning
- 1980s–1990s: OSHA asbestos standards implementation; abatement programs initiated at utility facilities nationwide
- 1990s–2000s: NESHAP-regulated renovation and demolition activities (documented in EPA ECHO enforcement data at comparable facilities); potential ongoing exposure from disturbance of legacy asbestos-containing materials
Workers employed from the 1950s through the early 2000s may fall within the latency window for asbestos-related disease diagnoses occurring today.
General Equipment at Prairie Creek Generating 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.
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.