Asbestos Exposure at Kentucky Utilities’ Coleman Station: Legal Rights for Affected Workers

If You Worked at Coleman Station and Have Mesothelioma, You May Have Legal Rights

If you or a loved one worked at Kentucky Utilities’ Coleman Station in Campbellsville and have been diagnosed with mesothelioma, lung cancer, or asbestosis, a Kentucky mesothelioma lawyer can help protect your legal rights. Workers at this coal-fired power plant may have been exposed to asbestos-containing materials during construction, maintenance, and equipment overhauls spanning decades. Manufacturers — including Johns-Manville, Combustion Engineering, and Owens-Illinois — reportedly knew of asbestos dangers but allegedly concealed this information from workers. This article covers what happened at Coleman Station, which jobs carried the highest exposure risk, and what legal options you have now.

⚠️ KENTUCKY FILING DEADLINE — CRITICAL WARNING
Kentucky’s statute of limitations for mesothelioma and asbestos disease claims is only ONE YEAR under KRS § 413.140(1)(a) — one of the shortest deadlines in the entire nation.
Families have as little as 12 months after diagnosis to file a civil lawsuit. Once that window closes, your right to compensation through Kentucky courts may be permanently extinguished — regardless of how strong your case is.
The clock starts running from your diagnosis date — not from when you were exposed.
If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with mesothelioma, lung cancer, or asbestosis and worked at Coleman Station, contact a Kentucky mesothelioma attorney today. Every day that passes after diagnosis is a day closer to losing your legal rights forever. Filing a claim with an asbestos trust fund does not stop the Kentucky statute of limitations clock.

What Was Coleman Station?
Why Power Plants Used Asbestos-Containing Materials
Timeline: When Asbestos Was Used at Coleman Station
What Asbestos Products Were Allegedly Present
Which Trades and Jobs Were Most at Risk
Family and Secondary Exposure Risk
Asbestos Diseases: Mesothelioma, Asbestosis, and Lung Cancer
Legal Options for Coleman Station Workers
Why You Need an Experienced Kentucky Asbestos Attorney
Kentucky Asbestos Trust Fund Claims
Contact a Mesothelioma Lawyer Today

What Was Coleman Station?

Coleman Station is a coal-fired steam electric generating station in Taylor County, near Campbellsville, Kentucky. Kentucky Utilities Company (KU) owned and operated it, later under the LG&E and KU Energy umbrella — today a subsidiary of PPL Corporation.

Coleman Station served as one of KU’s primary generating assets for decades, supplying electricity to central and eastern Kentucky. It operated alongside other KU and LG&E facilities across the Commonwealth, including the E.W. Brown Generating Station in Mercer County and Mill Creek Generating Station in Jefferson County — facilities sharing a similar construction era and comparable asbestos-containing materials histories. Workers who rotated among KU and LG&E facilities, as many contract tradespeople did, may have accumulated asbestos exposure across multiple Kentucky plant sites.

How the Plant Worked

Coleman Station ran as a conventional coal-fired steam generating station, producing electricity through a thermodynamic cycle that depended on:

High-pressure steam from massive boilers
Temperatures exceeding 1,000°F throughout the system
Miles of insulated piping carrying steam across the facility
Large turbines and generators tied directly to boiler systems

Every component of that system — from the boilers to the miles of interconnecting pipe — may have been built with or coated in asbestos-containing materials (ACMs) during the mid-twentieth century.

Who Worked at Coleman Station

At various points during its operational life, Coleman Station employed dozens to hundreds of workers, including:

Kentucky Utilities direct employees
Outside contractors and specialty craft workers
Union tradespeople brought in for scheduled maintenance, overhauls, and capital projects

Kentucky tradespeople affiliated with unions including Boilermakers Local 40 (Louisville), IBEW Local 369 (Louisville), and Asbestos Workers Local 76 may have worked at Coleman Station during construction, scheduled outages, and capital overhauls. Workers from these locals reportedly traveled among utility, industrial, and manufacturing facilities throughout central and eastern Kentucky, potentially accumulating asbestos exposure at multiple job sites — including Coleman Station, other LG&E and KU power plants, Armco Steel in Ashland, and General Electric Appliance Park in Louisville.

Why Power Plants Used Asbestos-Containing Materials

The Properties That Made Asbestos Attractive to Power Plant Builders

Asbestos — a group of naturally occurring silicate minerals — was used in industrial construction from the early 1900s through the late 1970s. Engineers valued it for properties that made it seem purpose-built for power generation:

Heat resistance exceeding 1,000°F
Flame retardancy near boilers and turbines
Electrical insulation in generating equipment
Tensile strength in insulation products
Low cost and ready supply for large-scale construction projects

Where Asbestos-Containing Materials Were Applied

At a coal-fired plant like Coleman Station, those properties made asbestos-containing materials the standard choice for:

Steam boilers operating above 1,000°F
High-pressure steam pipes
Turbine casings
Feed water heaters
Condensers
Pumps and valves

This was as true at Coleman Station in Taylor County as it was at the largest industrial complexes in the state — from the steel mills and coke ovens of Ashland and Middletown to the manufacturing plants of the Louisville metro area.

What Manufacturers Allegedly Knew — and Concealed

Internal corporate documents produced in asbestos litigation have allegedly established that companies such as Johns-Manville, Owens-Illinois, and Combustion Engineering were reportedly aware of lethal health risks from asbestos exposure as early as the 1930s and 1940s. They allegedly withheld that information from contractors, workers, and the public for decades — including from the Kentucky tradespeople who installed and maintained their products at facilities like Coleman Station.

Timeline: When Asbestos-Containing Materials Were Used at Coleman Station

Asbestos-containing materials are reported to have been present at Coleman Station from initial construction through subsequent decades of operation and maintenance.

Construction Era: Mid-20th Century Forward

Coal-fired generating stations built from roughly 1940 through the early 1980s were routinely constructed with large quantities of asbestos-containing materials. Workers at Coleman Station during construction and early operation may have been exposed to:

Johns-Manville block insulation on boilers, steam headers, and pressure vessels
Kaylo® pipe covering (Owens-Illinois) on steam lines, feed water lines, and condensate return lines
Boiler cement and refractory materials from A.P. Green Industries and similar manufacturers
Asbestos-containing gaskets and packing (Garlock Sealing Technologies) on valves, pumps, and flanges
Asbestos cloth and blankets near high-heat equipment
Spray-applied insulation potentially including Johns-Manville Monokote® on structural steel, prior to EPA restrictions
Asbestos-containing floor and ceiling tiles in control rooms and offices
Electrical insulation on wiring and switchgear

Maintenance and Overhaul: Ongoing Through the 1980s and Beyond

Annual and multi-year maintenance outages brought successive waves of workers into contact with aging, deteriorating asbestos-containing materials. Kentucky Utilities and LG&E facilities were known for drawing contract tradespeople from across central Kentucky and the Louisville metropolitan area during major scheduled outages. Workers from Boilermakers Local 40, IBEW Local 369, and Asbestos Workers Local 76 may have been among those who rotated through Coleman Station during these outages — working alongside one another in confined spaces where disturbed asbestos-containing materials may have released airborne fibers.

During these outages:

Old asbestos-containing insulation from Johns-Manville, Owens-Illinois, and other manufacturers was torn out and replaced, reportedly releasing airborne fibers
Boiler refractory and block insulation was repaired or replaced
Gaskets and packing on valves and flanges — allegedly including Garlock products — were routinely changed out
Combustion Engineering boiler and turbine overhauls allegedly disturbed large volumes of asbestos-containing materials

OSHA Regulations and Continued Use

OSHA did not implement comprehensive asbestos regulations for general industry until the 1970s, and asbestos-containing materials remained in service at existing facilities well into the 1980s and beyond. Workers at Coleman Station during these decades may have been exposed to airborne asbestos fibers with little or no respiratory protection in place. Kentucky did not adopt occupational asbestos standards separate from federal OSHA requirements, meaning the same regulatory gaps that existed at the federal level applied equally to workers at Coleman Station throughout this period.

⚠️ Do Not Wait — Kentucky’s One-Year Deadline Is Unforgiving
Mesothelioma has a latency period of 20 to 50 years. Many victims are diagnosed decades after their last asbestos exposure. Under KRS § 413.140(1)(a), Kentucky gives mesothelioma victims only one year from the date of diagnosis to file a civil lawsuit. Courts have strictly enforced this deadline — missing it typically means permanently forfeiting your right to sue, no matter how strong your case.
If you were recently diagnosed — or if a loved one was diagnosed weeks or months ago — the time to act is now. Retaining a Kentucky mesothelioma attorney does not take weeks. Call today, begin the intake process, and protect your family’s rights before that deadline passes.

What Asbestos-Containing Products Were Allegedly Present at Coleman Station?

The following products and manufacturers are identified based on materials commonly used at coal-fired power plants of Coleman Station’s construction era, as well as records from asbestos litigation involving comparable Kentucky Utilities and southeastern utility facilities.

Johns-Manville Corporation

Johns-Manville was historically the largest asbestos products manufacturer in the United States and reportedly supplied asbestos-containing materials to industrial facilities throughout Kentucky — including coal-fired power plants, steel mills such as Armco Steel in Ashland, and manufacturing complexes such as General Electric Appliance Park in Louisville.

Products manufactured by Johns-Manville and reportedly present at Coleman Station may have included:

Thermo-12® calcium silicate block insulation on high-temperature steam lines and pressure vessels
Asbestos pipe covering and sectional insulation for steam and hot water piping
Asbestos block insulation for boilers and steam generators
Asbestos cloth and tape for joints, fittings, and flanges
Transite® cement-asbestos board for construction applications
Monokote® spray-applied fireproofing containing asbestos

Bankruptcy and compensation: Johns-Manville filed for bankruptcy in 1982 and established the Manville Personal Injury Settlement Trust, which has paid billions of dollars to asbestos disease victims. Kentucky residents — including former Coleman Station workers — may be eligible to file claims with this trust. An experienced Kentucky mesothelioma lawyer can evaluate your eligibility and file trust claims alongside any civil litigation.

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

Kentucky Utilities' Coleman Station: Legal Rights for Affected