Big Rivers Power Plants and Mesothelioma (Podcast)

In this podcast, John Maher talks with Paul Kelley about asbestos exposure at the Big Rivers power plants. Paul explains how exposure occurred, who was exposed, and what to do if you’ve been diagnosed with asbestos due to exposure.

John Maher: Hi, I am John Maher. I’m here today with Paul Kelley. Paul is a partner with the Kentucky personal injury law firm, Satterley and Kelley, which has over 45 years of collective experience in litigating mesothelioma and asbestos claims. Today we’re talking about the Big Rivers power plants and mesothelioma.

Welcome, Paul.

Paul Kelley: Hey, John. How are you doing today?

John: Good, thanks. How are you?

Paul: Doing well, thank you.

What Are the Big Rivers Power Plants?

John: Good. So Paul, what are the Big Rivers power plants? Where are they located?

Paul: So there are several Big Rivers power plants. Some of them closed down, but historically, there was the Kenneth Coleman Station, and that was located kind of in the Lewisport-Hawesville Kentucky area. There’s also what we kind of globally call, the Sebree station in kind of Sebree-Robards area of Kentucky, but that probably is more commonly known as the [Robert] Reid Station, the Green Station, and the Henderson Station. And then there’s also the D.B. Wilson, which I think is more towards Centerville, Kentucky.

And those were all power plants that were built in the, let’s say the late 1970s, or I’m sorry, the late 1960s through the early 1980s. And they provided power for a substantial part of the Western Kentucky area. And sometimes they worked in co-op with other power facilities and co-ops. But essentially, Big Rivers operated several power plants in Western Kentucky that provided power to a significant population in that area of the state.

Asbestos at the Big Rivers Power Plants

John: And so how are the Big Rivers power plants related to asbestos and mesothelioma claims?

Paul: So a lot of different ways. I’ll kind of start with the Coleman station, which was started to be built in 1969.

Power plants contain a turbine. They contain a boiler. The turbine is what generates the electricity. The boiler is what provides the energy to the turbine to create the electricity. And these power plants are huge and they contain all kinds of equipment. They contain miles and miles of piping. And when those plants were built, particularly the earliest ones, they were all insulated with asbestos. The pipes that ran through the plant that provided steam contained asbestos. The piping that was connected to the boilers and the turbines contained asbestos. The boilers and the turbines were insulated with asbestos. The insides of the boilers were insulated with asbestos.

Asbestos was a very effective heat-resistant material. You can imagine how hot these boilers are. I forget the temperature ranges, but they’re north of a thousand degrees Fahrenheit, and it would require something very significant to keep their materials from degrading. And so like firebrick went into the boilers and that had to be replaced every so often, but it lasted a year or two. Sometimes the outsides of these boilers and turbines were insulated with asbestos in order to keep heat in and also to protect people from touching a hot piece of equipment.

There were things called precipitators that also contained asbestos, asbestos insulation, asbestos refractory firebrick material and then, of course, the piping. And you can only imagine in a facility that was acres long, how many miles of piping and power plants, in particular, had a lot of it because its whole purpose was to carry steam from the boiler to the turbines. And so there was miles and miles of piping that was all insulated with asbestos.

Who Was Exposed to Asbestos at Big Rivers?

And so historically, what we’ve seen at places like Coleman and then later on at the Sebree Station with Reid and Green and Henderson is all those pieces of equipment were insulated with asbestos, all the piping was. And so people who worked during the original construction of those plants were heavily exposed to asbestos and, unfortunately, years later started to develop mesothelioma.

Then in addition, they have to operate those plants and they have to maintain those plants and they have to update those plants and so people that came in years later to perform maintenance were exposed. Whether they replaced the insulation on the piping or they overhauled the boilers and the turbines, they were exposed. Millwrights that came in to tear out pieces of equipment and piping and to revamp were exposed. So there were a lot of people that worked both during the construction, as well as the maintenance and the operation of the plant who, ultimately, many years down the road developed cancer as a result of that exposure.

John: Yeah, and so all of the people that built the plant, like you said, any of the people who did maintenance on the plant. Were there other people who would’ve worked at the Big Rivers power plants who might’ve been exposed as well in some other indirect way?

Paul: I mean, the operators. I mean, they had to be exposed. So it takes a village of people to operate a power plant. I don’t know exactly what the numbers were of how many people were in these various plants, but Coleman Station had three units. And what that means is it had a turbine generator unit, so it had three of them. The Sebree Station had five units.

You’ve got dozens, if not hundreds, of people that are in that plant working to make sure that people are getting power. And so controllers, people that operated the turbines were getting exposed. People that operated the boilers were getting exposed.

The managers, supervisors, the engineers. I mean, you don’t just open up a power plant and turn it over to just anybody. You’ve got highly educated people that are operating this piece of equipment. You have highly educated people that come in and make sure that all the equipment is working and doing what it’s supposed to be doing. And so a lot of engineers worked in those plants and so a lot of engineers have been exposed and several of them have developed cancer over the years.

People who certainly visited the plant for whatever reason, not necessarily working in a maintenance situation, not necessarily a full-time employee, but they would have lots of visitors that would come into those plants for various reasons and they’re being exposed.

Over the years, asbestos does start to degrade a little bit, and we would frequently get descriptions from people that worked in those plants about it deteriorating from the steam lines and just falling down and falling into the breathing zone of people that are working in the plant, people that are visiting the plant.

And, unfortunately, the science indicates that it does not take a lot of asbestos to cause mesothelioma. And so anybody that’s spent any time in that plant or in any of those plants are, unfortunately, the ones that haven’t already developed cancer, they’re at significant risk of developing mesothelioma and a lot higher risk than your average population.

What to Do If You Have Mesothelioma or Cancer Due to Asbestos Exposure at Big Rivers’ Power Plants

John: Right. So if you were an employee at Big Rivers Electric Corporation, now you have lung cancer or asbestosis or mesothelioma, what should you do?

Paul: I think it’s important to contact a lawyer and try to figure out your rights. Big Rivers is an interesting location because there were so many contractors that worked there and then obviously a lot of manufacturers’ products were in there.

We’ve talked about this and other scenarios. A lot of those manufacturers have gone into bankruptcy. Several have not. A lot of the contractors and distributors have gone into bankruptcy. Several have not.

If you were a direct employee of Big Rivers, you can’t file a lawsuit against it. Under Kentucky Law, you’re limited to what’s called a workers’ compensation claim and there may be reasons why you can’t even file that. But you can certainly file a claim against the manufacturers of products. You can file claims against some of the distributors, some of the contractors that worked in there.

If you weren’t a Big Rivers employee, then there’s a pretty good chance that you can sue Big Rivers and recover directly from Big Rivers for causing or contributing to your cancer. But you have got to figure it out. And I’ve talked to so many people over the years that have worked in those facilities that really didn’t know what their exposure was. They knew that there was insulation there, they knew that they worked on turbines or boilers, but they didn’t have any understanding there was asbestos in those products.

And so it’s important to talk to a lawyer to kind of go through everything. And typically speaking, John, if somebody was a contractor and they worked at Big Rivers, they worked at more places than Big Rivers. They worked at all kinds of other places so there’s going to be some likely other exposures.

But it’s important to figure out what your rights are, to make sure that you file your case within the Kentucky statute of limitations, make sure that you exhaust all possible avenues of recovery and identify witnesses. This disease is very harsh and most people are going to pass away within a year, year and a half, of being diagnosed with the disease. Time is of the essence.

Hiring somebody that already has a lot of evidence related to a particular facility like Big Rivers is important. You can certainly try to recreate the wheel, but why do that when the evidence is already there? And so hiring somebody that not only has experience with mesothelioma cases and asbestos cases, but hiring somebody that knows that particular facility, knows those particular plants, I think, is critical.

And so my advice is obviously for you and your family, medical care and trying to develop a plan for treatment is of utmost importance. I mean, lawsuits are kind of over here on one side, but at some point, and the sooner, the better, it’s important to consult with an attorney to see what your rights are and to make sure that you’re adequately protecting your rights.

Things don’t get better over time. Memories fade. If somebody comes to me and they’ve developed cancer at 75, there’s a good chance that a lot of their coworkers are also that age. There’s a good chance that a lot of their coworkers have already passed away so making sure that somebody can get out there and start interviewing people and finding witnesses is critical. Sometimes our clients have passed already, and so it’s really important for us to find additional witnesses because we won’t get it anywhere else.

But I wish that we lived in a world where they could go to their doctors and develop a plan, take all the medical treatments, if they choose surgery, do all of that, and then worry about talking to a lawyer later. But that process takes several months, and those several months are a period of time that somebody like me can be out working for you and you don’t have to worry about that part of it.

That’s what you hire your lawyers for. That’s what we do, is to go out and try to develop the proof necessary for you to succeed while you and your family worry about what’s really important, which is trying to stay as healthy as you possibly can. And we don’t have a cure for mesothelioma yet, but the science is getting better. And certainly people’s lives, people are living longer, their quality of life is a lot better than what it used to be.

So focus on your medical care, but find out what your legal rights are. If you choose to hire somebody, let that lawyer hit the ground running and do everything that he or she can do to protect your legal rights and try to help you and your family in this extremely difficult and vulnerable time in your life.

Kentucky Statute of Limitations on Asbestos Exposure Claims

John: Right. You mentioned making sure that you file a claim before the Kentucky statute of limitations runs out. How long is that?

Paul: So under Kentucky law, we have one year from the date that we know or should know that we have an injury and also the cause of that injury and those can be two different dates. But the rule of thumb is to try to get a lawsuit filed within a year of the diagnosis. If a judge determines that you knew or should have known about your condition and the cause of it more than a year prior to when the case was filed, the judge doesn’t have any discretion. The judge has to dismiss your case.

So I don’t like to fool around with it. If somebody comes to me and they’ve been diagnosed a month prior, we figure it out and we get it filed as quickly as possible so we don’t leave anything to chance.

Now, sometimes they come nine, 10 months down the road and it’s a little bit of a challenge, but we still do everything we can do to try to get that thing filed within a year of the diagnosis because it would be very difficult for a judge or jury to conclude that it was untimely under those circumstances.

But if it’s 14 months after diagnosis, I’m not telling you that you can’t beat an SOL challenge because you can. But why run the risk if you don’t have to?

And then for obvious purposes, as I’ve mentioned before, life expectancy is not where we’d like it to be and so there’s just absolutely no reason to wait.

Contact Satterley and Kelley for Help Today

John: All right. Well, that’s really great information, Paul. Thanks again for speaking with me today.

Paul: Thank you, John. I appreciate it.

John: And for more information about mesothelioma and asbestos exposure, visit the law firm of Satterley and Kelley at satterleylaw.com or call (855) 385-9532.