Lovett Powerhouse-Tompkins Cove, NY

Asbestos at the Lovett Powerhouse in Tompkins Cove

Nestled along the banks of the Hudson River in the small hamlet of Tompkins Cove, New York, the Lovett Powerhouse was for decades one of the most significant energy-producing facilities in Rockland County. Constructed by Orange and Rockland Utilities and commissioned in 1955, the Lovett plant sat on 17 acres of land and at its peak could produce up to 380 megawatts of energy. Featuring several oil-fired boilers, the plant saw major renovations in the late 1980s. What it also harbored, from its very first days of operation, was an extensive and dangerous reliance on asbestos, which would eventually prove deadly for many of those who worked within its walls, and raise alarming concerns for the surrounding community.

A Corporate History and a Dangerous Legacy

Understanding Lovett’s story requires understanding the corporate lineage behind it. Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc. is located in the northwestern suburbs of New York, providing electric and gas services to over 745,000 people across multiple counties in upstate New York and northern New Jersey. In 1958, the Rockland Light and Power Company merged with Orange and Rockland Electric Company, creating what became known as Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc. In 1999, Orange and Rockland Utilities became officially owned by Consolidated Edison, Inc., one of the nation’s largest investor-owned energy companies.

Throughout all of these corporate changes, one constant remained at the Lovett plant: asbestos. Between the 1950s and 2000s, asbestos exposure was rampant at Orange and Rockland’s Lovett plant. For decades, employees and independent contractors were instructed to install various asbestos products throughout the plant, including gaskets, packing, insulation, raw fiber, asbestos spray, block, cement, and rope.

Asbestos as Part of the Plant’s Infrastructure

In power plants like Lovett, asbestos was used to insulate machinery that reached high temperatures. Plant workers would either spray asbestos insulating material directly onto heated machinery or apply asbestos insulation to pipes, electrical wires, and generators.

Between the 1950s and 1980s, much of the equipment used at the Lovett plant contained various asbestos components, including asbestos gaskets, packing, and mechanical seals. Equipment including pumps, valves, boilers, turbines, generators, and air compressors were regularly overhauled and repaired. This required employees to remove and replace asbestos materials.

The renovation work of the mid-1980s brought the asbestos problem into sharp public focus. In 1986, when Hatzel & Buehler was hired to perform substantial renovation work at Lovett to convert the plant’s equipment to run on coal, the contractor discovered that Orange and Rockland Utilities had failed to abate decades’ worth of asbestos materials. At the time, asbestos was being removed from machinery in violation of OSHA standards, possibly exposing hundreds of employees and independent contractors to vast amounts of asbestos. The 1986 exposures were so significant that all of the independent contractors terminated their contracts due to Orange and Rockland Utilities’ mishandling of asbestos material.

This was not merely a workplace violation. It was a signal that the plant’s management had known about the asbestos problem and had failed to address it.

A Community Placed at Risk

What makes the Lovett Powerhouse’s asbestos story particularly troubling is how far the danger extended beyond the plant gates. In 2001, a boiler exploded at the Lovett plant. While injuries were minimal, Tompkins Cove officials refused to dismiss children from school out of concern that the vast amounts of asbestos still present in 2001 posed a risk to the health of the children.

That fear was grounded in a grim reality. Before Orange and Rockland Utilities had sold the plant in 1999, they had failed to abate or encapsulate the asbestos materials installed decades earlier. After taking control of the plant, Mirant also failed to address the asbestos that officials feared was being spread throughout Tompkins Cove. In 2007 and 2008, due to the passage of the 2003 Clean Air Act, the power plant was closed due to its inability to meet air pollution emissions standards. But by then, the damage had already been done across multiple generations of workers.

Who Was Most at Risk of Asbestos Exposure?

The workers most directly in the line of fire were those whose trades brought them into regular contact with Lovett’s asbestos-laden equipment. Boilermakers and boiler operators would have been exposed from removing and replacing asbestos-containing block insulation, from asbestos-containing gaskets found in pumps and valves on the boilers, and from opening boiler doors that were often sealed with asbestos-containing refractories. Electricians were exposed from removing asbestos-containing insulation to perform their work on generators and turbines.

But not every victim was a skilled tradesperson. Laborers were often nearby when this work was performed, becoming exposed by breathing in asbestos-contaminated air and when cleaning up after skilled workers. The plant’s asbestos was airborne and indiscriminate, and no one working in its vicinity was safe from exposure.

Latency between Asbestos Exposure and Disease Development

The cruelest aspect of asbestos exposure is the decades-long delay before its consequences become apparent. Mesothelioma, the aggressive, incurable cancer caused by asbestos inhalation exposure, can take between 15 and 60 years to develop after exposure. A worker who spent the 1960s or 1970s repairing pumps and valves at Lovett may have had no symptoms for decades, only to receive a devastating diagnosis well into retirement.

A link between exposure to asbestos dust and lung disease was established as far back as the 1930s. Many companies whose products were used at Lovett had knowledge that their products posed serious hazards to power plant workers. Yet workers continued to handle those products without warning, without protection, and without any understanding of what they were breathing in. Employees were exposed to asbestos from work being performed on boilers, pumps, valves, steam traps, pipes, generators, turbines, and many other pieces of equipment throughout the 1950s until the 1980s.

Those who worked during the plant’s earliest and most asbestos-saturated decades are in the highest-risk window right now.

Seeking Justice

The negligence at Lovett was not the product of ignorance alone. The science was available even back then. The warnings existed. And still, company after company, from Orange and Rockland Utilities to Mirant, allowed asbestos to remain present, unabated, in a plant surrounded by homes, schools, and families. Asbestos exposure at Lovett was rampant, and while Lovett’s asbestos issues continued well into the 2000s, the corporations responsible had long possessed knowledge that their products posed serious hazards to power plant workers.

If you or someone you love worked at the Lovett Powerhouse in Tompkins Cove at any point between the 1950s and the plant’s closure, and has since been diagnosed with mesothelioma, lung cancer, asbestosis, or another asbestos-related disease, legal options may be available. Statutes of limitations apply, and the window to file a claim can close. Speaking with an experienced asbestos attorney is a critical first step toward understanding your rights and pursuing the compensation that you and your family deserve.

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Sources:

• IEEE: Architect of Power
• New York Times: Fiery Blast Shuts Off Power to Many New Yorkers
• IEEE: History ─ An AC Pioneer, United Electric Light and Power Company
• Public Service Commission: PSC Concludes Investigation of Con Ed Electric Supply