Mesothelioma Lawyer Michigan: Asbestos Cancer Claims from New Covert Generating Facility

If You Worked at New Covert Generating and Have Been Diagnosed with Mesothelioma or Asbestosis, You May Have Legal Rights to Compensation

⚠️ URGENT Michigan FILING DEADLINE WARNING
Michigan’s statute of limitations for asbestos personal injury claims is 5 years from the date of diagnosis under MCL § 600.5805(2). That window may be significantly shorter than you think.This bill has not yet become law, but its passage would create significant new procedural burdens for cases filed after that date.
The clock runs from your diagnosis date — not from the last day you worked at New Covert Generating. A diagnosis received last month starts a five-year countdown today.
**Contact an asbestos attorney Michigan today.—

Asbestos Exposure at New Covert Generating: What Workers Need to Know

Former workers at the New Covert Generating Facility in Covert Township, Michigan — and their families — have a limited window to file claims for asbestos-related diseases. If you worked as an insulator, pipefitter, boilermaker, electrician, or in any other capacity at this power plant and have since been diagnosed with mesothelioma, asbestosis, or lung cancer, an asbestos cancer lawyer in St. Louis or experienced toxic tort counsel can help you understand your legal options. This page explains what reportedly occurred at this facility, why you may have been exposed to asbestos-containing materials, the diseases that can result, and the legal remedies available under Michigan, Missouri, Illinois, and federal law.

Why This Facility Matters for Michigan residents

Many workers who labored at New Covert Generating were members of Michigan-based union locals or were dispatched from Missouri and Illinois union halls along the Mississippi River industrial corridor — including Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1 (St. Louis), UA Local 562 (pipefitters, St. Louis), and Boilermakers Local 27 (St. Louis) — whose members traveled to Michigan power plant projects during construction and outage work.

If you were dispatched from a Michigan or Illinois local to work at New Covert Generating, your legal rights under Michigan mesothelioma settlement law and your venue options may include courts in your home state — Wayne County Circuit Court, Madison County, Illinois, and St. Clair County, Illinois — all of which have handled substantial asbestos litigation. The discussion of legal rights below addresses both Michigan law and the Michigan and Illinois legal frameworks that may apply to workers with ties to those states.

The urgency of acting now cannot be overstated. Workers who received a diagnosis in 2021 or earlier may already be approaching or past the current deadline.—

The Facility and Its Asbestos History

About the New Covert Generating Facility

The New Covert Generating Facility is a natural gas-fired combined-cycle power plant located in Covert Township, Van Buren County, Michigan, on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, generating approximately 1,170 megawatts of electricity.

Like virtually every major industrial power plant built or substantially operated before the mid-1980s, the New Covert Generating Facility reportedly made extensive use of asbestos-containing materials (ACMs) during construction and subsequent maintenance cycles. Workers — including construction personnel, skilled tradespeople, and maintenance staff — who worked at this facility during various periods may have been exposed to asbestos-containing materials.

The industrial practices that reportedly brought asbestos-containing materials to this Michigan facility were the same practices simultaneously deployed at comparable facilities throughout the Mississippi River industrial corridor — including Labadie Energy Center and Portage des Sioux Power Plant in Missouri, Granite City Steel in Illinois, and facilities operated by Monsanto and other chemical manufacturers along the Missouri and Illinois riverbanks. Workers from Missouri and Illinois union locals were routinely dispatched to Michigan plants during construction and major outage cycles.

Why Power Plants Used Asbestos-Containing Materials

Operating Conditions

Power plants run under extreme heat, pressure, and thermal cycling. Steam turbines, boilers, high-pressure piping, and associated equipment routinely operate at temperatures between 500 and 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit and at pressures measured in thousands of pounds per square inch. No other material available at the time matched asbestos for those conditions at industrial scale.

Industry Practice from the 1930s Through the Late 1970s

From roughly the 1930s through the late 1970s, asbestos was the thermal insulation standard in heavy industrial settings. Manufacturers including Johns-Manville, Owens-Illinois, Owens Corning, Combustion Engineering, Crane Co., Eagle-Picher, Garlock Sealing Technologies, and Armstrong World Industries supplied asbestos-containing products to power plants because those products:

Withstood temperatures exceeding 2,000°F
Could be woven, sprayed, mixed into cement, and molded into virtually any shape
Resisted acids, alkalis, and corrosive industrial chemicals
Provided electrical insulation in high-voltage environments
Retarded fire spread
Were cost-effective and widely available

Those properties made asbestos-containing materials the industry standard throughout power plants in:

Boiler insulation
Turbine insulation
Pipe covering and lagging
Gaskets and packing materials
Refractory cement
Floor tiles and ceiling materials
Spray-applied fireproofing
Electrical panel insulation
Valve packing and components

The same manufacturers who allegedly supplied New Covert Generating supplied facilities throughout Michigan and Illinois during the same era. Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1 members working at Labadie, Portage des Sioux, and Mississippi River industrial facilities during the 1950s through 1980s were reportedly handling the same Johns-Manville, Owens-Illinois, and Armstrong products that traveled north to Michigan job sites.

What Manufacturers Knew — and Concealed

Manufacturers including Johns-Manville, Owens-Illinois, Owens Corning, Combustion Engineering, Crane Co., Eagle-Picher, Garlock Sealing Technologies, Armstrong World Industries, and W.R. Grace knew or should have known about the serious health hazards of asbestos exposure for decades before issuing any warnings or withdrawing their products. Internal documents produced in litigation show these companies possessed that knowledge long before they acted on it.

The EPA’s 1973 restrictions on spray-applied asbestos and OSHA’s permissible exposure limit revisions of 1972 and 1976 began to change industry practice. Millions of pounds of asbestos-containing materials already installed in existing facilities, however, continued to present exposure hazards during maintenance, renovation, and repair work for years and decades afterward.

When Workers at New Covert Generating May Have Been Exposed

Original Construction and Early Operations

During original construction and early operations, workers and contractors may have been exposed to asbestos-containing materials applied to:

Every steam-carrying pipe
Boiler surfaces
Turbine casings
All major heat-generating components

Insulators, pipefitters, boilermakers, and construction laborers who participated in original construction may have been exposed to asbestos-containing materials while:

Cutting and fitting asbestos-containing products
Mixing asbestos-containing compounds on site
Installing and applying ACMs in confined areas with no respiratory protection

Construction workforces on Michigan power plant projects of this era frequently included travelers — journeymen dispatched from Missouri and Illinois union locals including Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1, UA Local 562, and Boilermakers Local 27 — who worked alongside Michigan-based trades throughout construction phases. Those workers’ alleged asbestos exposures at New Covert Generating are directly relevant to any legal claims they may file in Missouri or Illinois courts.

Maintenance and Turnaround Work

Power plants require regular scheduled and unscheduled maintenance outages. During those periods, existing asbestos-containing insulation on pipes, boilers, and equipment is frequently disturbed — removed to access underlying equipment, then sometimes replaced with new material. Maintenance workers, contractors, and subcontractors who participated in outage work at New Covert Generating may have been exposed to friable asbestos-containing materials that had deteriorated over time and released fibers readily upon disturbance.

Missouri and Illinois contractors who sent crews to perform outage and turnaround work at Michigan power plants throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s represent a recognized category in Asbestos Michigan litigation filed in Wayne County Circuit Court and Madison County, Illinois. Courts in those jurisdictions have well-developed precedent applicable to workers who lived and were dispatched from Missouri or Illinois but were allegedly exposed at out-of-state facilities.

Renovation and Expansion Projects

Workers involved in expansion, renovation, or equipment replacement projects at the facility would have encountered asbestos-containing materials installed in prior decades. Activities generating the highest fiber concentrations include:

Cutting and breaking asbestos-containing materials
Demolition work
Removal and disposal of ACMs without proper containment

Legacy Asbestos After Regulatory Changes

After regulatory changes in the 1970s and 1980s curtailed new asbestos use, legacy ACMs already installed at New Covert Generating continued to pose potential exposure risks. Workers performing:

Pipe repairs
Valve replacements
Gasket work
Routine maintenance on older sections of the facility

…may have continued encountering asbestos-containing materials well into the 1980s, 1990s, and potentially beyond, particularly in areas that had not been fully abated.

This timeline is critical for Michigan residents. Michigan’s 3-year statute of limitations under MCL § 600.5805(2) runs from the date of diagnosis — not the date of last exposure — meaning workers who labored at this facility decades ago but received a mesothelioma or asbestosis diagnosis recently may still be within the filing window. But that window is not unlimited.** Workers who delay — even if they remain within the five-year limitations period — could face significantly more complex procedural requirements that reduce their ultimate recovery. An experienced mesothelioma lawyer michigan-based can tell you exactly where you stand.

Who Faced the Highest Exposure: Occupations at New Covert Generating

Research into occupational asbestos exposure at power generating facilities consistently identifies certain trades as carrying the highest potential exposure levels. Workers in the following occupations who worked at New Covert Generating Facility may have been exposed to asbestos-containing materials.

Insulators (Thermal Insulation Workers)

Of all trades at power generating facilities, insulators likely faced the highest potential asbestos exposure. Their work involved direct application, removal, and replacement of:

Asbestos-containing pipe covering and calcium silicate products
Boiler block insulation
Turbine insulation and lagging
Related thermal insulation materials

Industrial hygiene studies document that insulator work generated fiber concentrations many times higher than OSHA’s current permissible exposure limit.

Specific exposure activities included:

Mixing asbestos-containing insulating cement by hand
Cutting and fitting asbestos pipe covering and block insulation
Removing deteriorated asbestos-containing insulation during maintenance (“rip-out” work)
Applying asbestos cloth and tape to irregular surfaces
Working in enclosed spaces where fiber concentrations accumulated without adequate ventilation or respiratory protection

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](https://www.osha.gov/pls/