About Weston RICE Power Station
Ownership and Operational History
Weston Power Station — formally designated the J.P. Madgett Power Plant — sits in Marathon County, Wisconsin, along the Wisconsin River near Wausau. Wisconsin Public Service Corporation (WPS), a subsidiary of Integrys Energy Group and now part of WEC Energy Group, owns and operates the facility.
The four generating units:
- Weston Unit 1 — reportedly placed in service in the 1950s
- Weston Unit 2 — reportedly placed in service in the 1960s
- Weston Unit 3 — reportedly completed in the early 1970s, one of the largest coal-fired generating additions in Wisconsin at that time
- Weston Unit 4 — reportedly constructed in the 2000s, with updated environmental controls
Units 1, 2, and 3 were built and operated during the decades when asbestos-containing materials were the industry standard across every major coal-fired generating facility in the Midwest. Workers who built, maintained, overhauled, or repaired these units from the 1950s through the late 1980s may have encountered asbestos-containing materials routinely throughout their time at the facility.
General Equipment at Weston RICE Power 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 — 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:
Who May Have Been Exposed at Weston RICE Power Station
Insulators and Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1
Insulators faced among the highest occupational asbestos exposures of any construction trade. Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1, based in Milwaukee, has represented insulation workers throughout Wisconsin and has historically dispatched members to major industrial construction and maintenance projects across the Midwest — including Wisconsin power stations. Members of Local 1 and affiliated locals who traveled to Weston for construction or outage work may have been exposed to asbestos-containing materials at the facility.
Insulator exposure is well-documented in trial records, industrial hygiene literature, and trust fund claims data. If you are a retired insulator, your occupational history is among the strongest foundations for an asbestos claim.
Pipefitters and Steamfitters
Pipefitters who worked at Weston may have been exposed to asbestos-containing gasket materials, pipe insulation, and valve packing throughout their time at the facility. Cutting asbestos-containing sheet gaskets to fit flanges — standard practice before the mid-1980s — released concentrated fiber clouds in confined spaces. United Association (UA) local members dispatched from
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For asbestos-related lung cancer, civil litigation against asbestos product manufacturers and bankruptcy trust funds are the primary recovery paths for workers who smoked, since those forums can address asbestos as a contributing cause regardless of smoking history. Pleural plaques without functional impairment are not on their own a compensable injury on its own, though they remain important medical evidence if disease later progresses.
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
- 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 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.
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:
- 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)
- Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources 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.