About Stoneman Generating Station | Cassville

Stoneman Generating Station sits along the Great Lakes region in Cassville, Grant County, Wisconsin. It operated as a coal-fired electric generating facility for decades under several ownership structures, with DTE Stoneman LLC holding operational responsibility in its later years.

Its location on the upper Mississippi River placed it within the same industrial corridor that extends southward through neighboring states — connecting Stoneman to comparable regional power stations, regional steel operations, and the broader network of Mississippi River industrial facilities where the same trades, the same union locals, and many of the same asbestos-containing materials were in continuous use throughout the mid-twentieth century. Workers in this corridor commonly moved between facilities, carried work histories across state lines, and shared exposure to the same asbestos-containing products from the same manufacturers.

The plant’s industrial footprint — massive boilers, turbines, cooling systems, and miles of high-pressure steam piping — placed Stoneman squarely in the category of worksites now associated with serious occupational asbestos exposure in American industrial history.

Coal-fired power generating stations like Stoneman were constructed during an era when asbestos-containing materials were the industry standard for high-temperature insulation, fire protection, and mechanical sealing. From the plant’s earliest operational decades through at least the 1970s and into the 1980s, asbestos-containing materials, gaskets and packing, ceiling tile, and were reportedly integrated throughout virtually every major system in the facility.

General Equipment at Stoneman Generating Station | Cassville

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 — Wisconsin

The records below are verified, state-documented asbestos removals at this facility. Each entry represents a regulated abatement project where the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (Wisconsin 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 Wisconsin 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:

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 Stoneman Generating Station | Cassville

Generations of skilled tradespeople worked at Stoneman, including members of Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1, Plumbers and Pipefitters UA Local 75, Boilermakers Local 107, and affiliated unions representing:

  • Pipefitters and steamfitters
  • Boilermakers
  • Insulators
  • Electricians
  • Millwrights
  • Laborers

Many of these workers — dispatched from neighboring states union halls to job sites throughout the upper Great Lakes industrial corridor — spent careers moving between Stoneman and facilities like comparable regional power stations, and regional steel operations. Asbestos litigation experts and medical researchers consistently identify long-term, repeated occupational asbestos exposure as creating the greatest risk of asbestos-related disease. Workers with multi-facility exposure histories across this corridor may have accumulated fiber burdens from multiple worksites over decades.

Wisconsin — Filing Deadline & Next Steps

Wisconsin law gives mesothelioma and asbestos-disease claimants 3 years from the date of medical diagnosis to file a personal-injury lawsuit (Wis. Stat. § 893.54). For wrongful-death claims after an asbestos-related death, the filing window is 3 years from the date of death (Wis. Stat. § 893.54). 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 Wisconsin 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 — Wisconsin

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 a claim 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

Stoneman sits on the Wisconsin side of the upper Mississippi River — directly across from and within the same industrial corridor as major neighboring states power generation and manufacturing facilities, including We Energies’s comparable regional power stations, We Energies’s comparable regional power stations, and the heavy industrial complex surrounding the regional industrial corridor, Illinois. Workers in this corridor frequently crossed state lines, worked at multiple facilities, and were represented by the same neighboring states union locals.

Many of these workers — dispatched from neighboring states union halls to job sites throughout the upper Great Lakes industrial corridor — spent careers moving between Stoneman and facilities like comparable regional power stations, and regional steel operations.

Data Sources — Wisconsin

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.