About Haverhill North Cogeneration Facility

The Haverhill North Cogeneration Facility sits in Franklin Furnace, Scioto County, Ohio. Cogeneration facilities — also called combined heat and power (CHP) plants — generate electricity and capture usable heat from a single fuel source. They run at high temperatures and pressures, which is precisely why they were reportedly built with asbestos-containing materials from the ground up.

The facility reportedly:

  • Operated high-pressure steam turbines and boilers
  • Maintained steam systems running above 1,000°F
  • Contained extensive pipe networks throughout the plant
  • Supplied energy to industrial customers along the southern Ohio River corridor

Before 1980, no material competed with asbestos for high-temperature industrial applications. Asbestos-containing materials resisted temperatures above 1,600°F, held up under steam condensation and moisture, and outlasted every alternative then available. Every flange, valve, and mechanical joint in a pressurized steam system needed a reliable seal, and compressed asbestos fiber (CAF) gaskets and asbestos rope packing were the industry standard. Building codes required fireproofing on structural steel in boiler rooms and turbine halls, and spray-applied asbestos fireproofing went onto steel throughout facilities built before 1980.

General Equipment at Haverhill North Cogeneration Facility

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 Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (Ohio EPA) 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 Ohio EPA 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 Haverhill North Cogeneration Facility

Insulators applied, removed, and replaced asbestos-containing pipe insulation, boiler block insulation, and equipment jacketing — the highest-dust work in the plant. Workers who may have worked at Haverhill North — including members of Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1 (St. Louis, Missouri) — reportedly worked at major Missouri and Illinois facilities and many traveled to Ohio River industrial sites for turnaround work. High-exposure tasks allegedly performed by insulators included mixing asbestos insulating cement in dry form, cutting asbestos pipe covering sections with hand saws or power tools, stripping deteriorated asbestos block insulation from boiler surfaces, applying asbestos cloth wrap and rope to turbine components and flanged connections, and working alongside other insulators performing simultaneous tasks in enclosed spaces.

Pipefitters and Steamfitters, including members of UA Local 562 (Plumbers and Pipefitters, St. Louis, Missouri), worked on steam, feedwater, and condensate return systems and may have been exposed through gasket work, scraping and grinding deteriorated CAF gaskets from steam flanges, pulling asbestos rope packing from valve stems during routine maintenance, working in confined spaces where insulators were simultaneously applying or removing ACMs, and cutting into insulated pipe systems.

Boilermakers, including members of Boilermakers Local 27 (St. Louis, Missouri), built, maintained, and repaired boilers and pressure vessels. Tasks that may have generated asbestos exposure included installing and removing asbestos-containing refractory brick linings and castable refractory cements inside boiler fireboxes, replacing woven asbestos rope gaskets on firebox access doors, working inside boiler fireboxes where refractory materials accumulated and ventilation was minimal, and welding near asbestos-containing insulation.

Electricians worked directly with asbestos millboard linings in switchgear panels, motor control centers, and distribution panels; asbestos arc chutes in circuit breakers; asbestos fiber braid on high-temperature electrical cables; and asbestos firestop materials at electrical penetrations. Millwrights and maintenance workers installed and maintained machinery surrounded by asbestos-insulated steam and process lines and may have been exposed by working in proximity to insulators and pipefitters during simultaneous maintenance operations.

Critical Filing Deadline & Next Steps

Ohio law gives mesothelioma and asbestos-disease claimants 2 years from the date of medical diagnosis to file a personal-injury lawsuit (ORC § 2305.10). For wrongful-death claims after an asbestos-related death, the filing window is 2 years from the date of death (ORC § 2125.02). 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 Ohio 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

Workers and contractors who traveled between industrial sites along the Mississippi River and Ohio River industrial corridors — including Missouri and Illinois facilities such as AmerenUE’s Labadie and Portage des Sioux generating stations, Granite City Steel, and Monsanto chemical facilities — regularly worked at multiple plants, including Haverhill North. The Ohio River industrial corridor connects directly to the Mississippi River industrial corridor running through Missouri and Illinois. Pipefitters, insulators, boilermakers, and electricians from Missouri and Illinois — particularly members of St. Louis-area union locals — regularly traveled to Ohio River facilities including Haverhill North for construction, maintenance, and turnaround work. Missouri and Illinois contractors who performed insulation, HVAC, demolition, or abatement work at Ohio River facilities — including Haverrill North — may have been exposed to asbestos-containing materials if they worked in areas containing disturbed ACMs or performed abatement without proper containment.

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.