Asbestos at the New York State Power Authority Crescent Plant
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Just 12 miles north of Albany and minutes away from Belluck Law’s Clifton Park office, sits one of the oldest continuously operating hydroelectric facilities in the state. The Crescent Plant, also known as the Crescent Hydroelectric Project, has been generating power on the banks of the Mohawk since the early twentieth century. Its history is intertwined with the Erie Canal, the New York State Barge Canal System, and more than a hundred years of regional energy production. The current powerhouse, located on the western bank, was built in 1925 and expanded in the late 1980s. The Power Authority acquired the Crescent Dam from the state Department of Transportation in 1984 and installed two new turbine-generators in the powerhouse in 1990. Today, the hydroelectric powerhouse consists of four turbine-generators with a generating capacity of 12 megawatts.
The Crescent Project is located on the Mohawk River in Saratoga, Albany, and Schenectady Counties, New York, spanning the Towns of Waterford, Colonie, Halfmoon, Clifton Park, and Niskayuna. Its origins predate NYPA’s ownership by decades. In 1913, hydropower was harnessed at the site. The original powerhouse was located at the east end of Dam A and dismantled around 1927, when a power line was strung across the river from a newly built, larger powerhouse to take its place.
The Crescent Project and Asbestos
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The 1925 powerhouse that replaced it, expanded in the late 1980s and upgraded with new turbine-generators in 1990, was a facility built and rebuilt during the era when asbestos was the insulation material of choice throughout the power generation industry. Each wave of construction and renovation at Crescent brought new workers into contact with asbestos-containing materials, and each upgrade disturbed materials that previous generations had installed.
Although health issues related to asbestos began being documented in 1906, any plant built between the 1930s into the 1980s still used asbestos products to prevent fires and protect the machinery, as asbestos is an effective insulator for intense heat. The turbines, generators, pumps, valves, piping, and electrical equipment that made up the Crescent Plant’s generating infrastructure were all products of this era, built with and surrounded by asbestos-containing materials as standard practice.
Asbestos is a fact of life in the majority of hydroelectric facilities in North America and its use was widespread during the construction of many of these facilities.
Turbines, Generators, and the Hazards of Maintenance
The generating equipment at the Crescent Plant was, like that at every hydroelectric facility of its era, heavily insulated with asbestos-containing materials. Turbines used asbestos to insulate the inside and outside of the turbine, often in the form of blankets or thermal insulation. Turbines were connected to numerous pumps and valves which required asbestos-containing packing and gaskets. When turbines were inspected and maintained, these materials had to be disturbed, exposing power plant workers to asbestos.
The pumps and valves that regulated the flow of water through the Crescent facility presented their own persistent exposure risks. There were hundreds of pumps in powerhouses including boiler feed, steam, water, oil, chemical, and cooling pumps. These pumps were insulated with asbestos on the outside of the pump. They also contained casing gaskets and flange gaskets. Pumps also used packing in glands to seal the pump. When pumps were opened up to be cleaned, inspected, repaired, or replaced, the asbestos covering on the pump was disturbed.
The late 1980s expansion and the 1990 turbine-generator installation brought significant construction activity to the Crescent powerhouse. This activity required workers to tear into the existing structure, remove old asbestos-containing insulation, and work alongside newly installed materials that may themselves have contained asbestos. Workers involved in abatement work are particularly vulnerable if proper protective measures are not scrupulously followed; the act of removing asbestos-containing materials, if done improperly, can release far higher concentrations of fibers than the original installation would have done.
NYPA’s Broader Asbestos Legacy
The Crescent Plant did not exist in isolation. It was one component of a much larger network of NYPA facilities, all of which shared the same era of construction, the same materials, and the same failure to protect workers from the consequences. The New York State Power Authority, like many other similar facilities during the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, utilized toxic asbestos materials in its construction, maintenance, and use. Insulators, pipefitters, and other utility workers who routinely fitted, drilled, and cut asbestos products while performing their jobs now find themselves at risk of mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases.
Plant workers who maintained, repaired, or operated this machinery were inevitably exposed to these toxic fibers, and are unfortunately being diagnosed with mesothelioma and lung cancer. The NYPA operates a large number of generating facilities where exposure to this cancer-causing material has occurred. The Crescent Plant is one node in a network of harm that spans the state, from the Catskill Mountains to the Niagara Frontier, and its workers share in a story of industrial negligence that is still producing diagnoses decades after the exposures occurred.
Who Was Most at Risk?
The workers most directly affected at the Crescent Plant were those whose trades placed them in regular, hands-on contact with the facility’s generating equipment. Power plant workers maintain many types of equipment at power generation and distribution plants. These workers include pipefitters, electricians, maintenance mechanics, boiler operators and tenders, plumbers, welders, and laborers. Workers were exposed to asbestos when installing, inspecting, maintaining, repairing, removing, and replacing boilers, pumps, valves, heaters, electrical boxes, and other equipment.
At a plant of the Crescent facility’s age and complexity, maintenance was an every-day task. Equipment dating back to the 1925 construction regularly required attention, and every maintenance cycle that involved insulated equipment, valve packing, or gasket replacement was a potential exposure event. Workers who participated in the expansion of the late 1980s and the new turbine installations of 1990 were working alongside materials in a powerhouse that had accumulated decades of asbestos-containing products in its walls, floors, and equipment.
The risk was not confined to those who worked inside the powerhouse itself. The Crescent Hydro Power Plant energized several Erie Canal locks through a network of electrical infrastructure that extended across the river and into the surrounding canal system. Workers who maintained that external infrastructure like cable crews, electricians, and maintenance technicians faced exposure from asbestos-insulated electrical equipment beyond the powerhouse walls.
Take-Home Exposures from the Crescent Plant
And as has been documented at every power plant of this era, the hazard traveled home. Workers who spent their shifts in contact with asbestos-containing materials carried fibers on their clothing, in their hair, and on their skin, exposing spouses, children, and other family members to secondary asbestos contamination without any of those family members ever setting foot near the Mohawk River.
The Long Latency of Mesothelioma
Mesothelioma, the aggressive and incurable cancer of the tissue lining that surrounds the lungs, abdomen, or heart, is caused by asbestos exposure. One of its defining characteristics is the extraordinary length of time between exposure and diagnosis. The disease’s latency period can span 10 to 60 years, meaning that a worker who spent the 1970s or 1980s maintaining the Crescent Plant’s turbines and generators may only now be receiving a diagnosis that traces directly to those decades of work.
The companies that made and sold asbestos products knew asbestos was dangerous as far back as the 1920s, yet continued selling their products for decades without warning workers or educating them about safe handling procedures.
For a plant with origins as deep as the Crescent facility’s, with construction history reaching back to 1913, a major powerhouse built in 1925, and significant renovation work in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the population of workers potentially affected spans multiple generations. Those who worked through the expansion and upgrade periods of the 1980s and 1990s are now entering the decades-long diagnostic window when mesothelioma most commonly presents itself.
The reality is that asbestos cannot be dealt with in one fell swoop and completely eliminated from facilities. Instead, its presence must be managed on a case-by-case basis, usually while other work is being performed at a facility. This ongoing reality means that even recent work at the Crescent Plant, like cable replacement following Hurricane Irene in 2011, for instance, could have brought workers into proximity with disturbed asbestos-containing materials.
Seeking Justice
If you or someone you love worked at the New York State Power Authority Crescent Plant, whether as a NYPA employee, a union tradesperson, a contract worker brought in for expansion or maintenance work, or an electrical or cable crew maintaining the plant’s external infrastructure and have since been diagnosed with mesothelioma or lung cancer, legal options may be available to you.
People who have been diagnosed with mesothelioma are victims of the asbestos industry and have the right to seek compensation from the companies that caused their illness. To maximize the chance of legal success, it is important for asbestos victims to speak to attorneys who are thoroughly experienced in handling these types of cases.
Statutes of limitations apply to asbestos claims in New York, and the window to pursue compensation can close. An experienced asbestos attorney can review your work history at the Crescent Plant, identify the manufacturers of the specific asbestos-containing products you were exposed to, and pursue compensation through personal injury litigation or asbestos trust fund claims at no upfront cost to you or your family.
