About Richard H. Gorsuch Generating Station
The Richard H. Gorsuch Generating Station is a coal-fired electric power generation facility on the Ohio River in Marietta, Ohio — Washington County, southeastern Ohio. The plant has been operated by American Municipal Power, Inc. (AMP), a nonprofit wholesale power supplier serving public power communities across the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic.
Marietta sits at the confluence of the Ohio and Muskingum rivers, a geography that made it a natural industrial hub. Coal-fired power generation imposes extreme thermal demands on every system in the plant: Boilers operating above 1,000°F, high-pressure steam lines carrying steam at 500°F to 1,000°F or more, turbines and mechanical components under sustained thermal and mechanical stress, feedwater heaters, heat exchangers, and condensers cycling through repeated thermal expansion and contraction, and extensive pipe networks requiring insulation to maintain efficiency and prevent heat loss.
Asbestos-containing materials allegedly appeared throughout the facility in multiple forms: pipe covering and lagging, boiler block insulation and refractory cement, turbine insulation and casing wraps, gaskets and packing materials, expansion joints in ductwork and piping, floor tiles, ceiling tiles, and fireproofing materials, electrical insulation on wiring and switchgear, roofing materials and transite panels, and thermal spray coatings. Original construction of the Gorsuch Generating Station reportedly involved substantial use of asbestos-containing materials consistent with industry practices of the era. As EPA regulations began to restrict new installation of asbestos-containing materials in the mid-1980s, the focus of exposure shifted — but it did not end. Workers at existing facilities like Gorsuch continued to encounter disturbed asbestos-containing materials during maintenance and repair operations: removing and reinstalling pipe insulation, replacing deteriorated gaskets, cutting through fireproofing to access equipment, and performing scheduled turnarounds that required wholesale disassembly and reassembly of insulated systems.
General Equipment at Richard H. Gorsuch 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 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:
Who May Have Been Exposed at Richard H. Gorsuch Generating Station
Members of Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1 in St. Louis, pipefitter trade associations, and utility engineering departments all operated under conditions where asbestos-containing materials were the default choice for high-temperature applications. Union insulators, boilermakers, pipefitters, and construction laborers were reportedly handling, installing, and working alongside asbestos-containing insulation, fireproofing materials, and construction components throughout this period.
Not every worker at Gorsuch faced the same risk. The trades with the heaviest documented asbestos exposure in coal-fired power plant settings were those that routinely disturbed, cut, or removed asbestos-containing materials. Maintenance work on legacy asbestos-containing materials is consistently cited in occupational health literature as among the highest-intensity exposure scenarios — higher, in many cases, than original installation. A pipefitter who worked exclusively at Gorsuch in the 1990s and never touched a bag of new insulation may still have been exposed to dangerous concentrations of airborne fibers during gasket removal or boiler repair.
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
- 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 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
Union workers in the trades — particularly Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1 (St. Louis), Plumbers and Pipefitters UA Local 562 (St. Louis), and Boilermakers Local 27 (St. Louis) — routinely worked rotating assignments across this entire corridor. A worker who spent years insulating pipe at Gorsuch may have also worked at: AmerenUE’s Labadie Power Plant — Franklin County, Missouri, Ameren’s Portage des Sioux Power Plant — St. Charles County, Missouri, Granite City Steel — Madison County, Illinois, Monsanto chemical operations — St. Louis County, Missouri, and petrochemical and refining facilities along the Mississippi River in Illinois and Missouri.
Union workers routinely traveled to job sites throughout the Ohio and Mississippi River valleys for large construction projects and maintenance turnarounds. A single career may have included time at Gorsuch in Ohio, Labadie and Portage des Sioux in Missouri, and Granite City Steel in Illinois — all within the same exposure window. Workers along the Ohio-Mississippi corridor — including those who rotated among coal-fired power plants, petrochemical facilities, and industrial sites — may carry asbestos exposure histories that span multiple states and multiple decades.
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)
- Ohio Environmental Protection Agency 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.