Sheridan Avenue Steam Station in Albany, New York
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Asbestos at the Sheridan Avenue Steam Station in Albany, New York
Table of Contents
Tucked into the ravine neighborhood of Sheridan Hollow in the heart of Albany, New York, the Sheridan Avenue Steam Station has been a fixture of state government operations for well over a hundred years. Construction on the plant was first announced in 1911, with the facility located on the corner of Sheridan Avenue and North Hawk Street in Albany. The original boiler room was designed to accommodate ten 380-horsepower boilers, with an engine room built to contain multiple engines and dynamos. Over the decades that followed, the plant evolved into the central energy engine for some of Albany’s most iconic public buildings. Unfortunately, the workers who kept it running were never told about the hazard that surrounded them every day.
A Plant with Many Fuels
Over the course of its more than 110-year history, the Sheridan Avenue Steam Plant has burned coal, oil, and even garbage. Each conversion brought new construction crews, new contractors, and new opportunities for asbestos disturbance. The plant serves to heat the New York State Office Complex at Empire State Plaza, meaning its boilers and steam systems operated continuously, under constant pressure, year after year.
In 1982, the oil-burning steam generating plant in Sheridan Hollow was converted to burn garbage as part of the Albany New York Solid Waste Energy Recovery System (ANSWERS). That conversion, and others before it, required workers to tear into, modify, and rebuild systems that were laden with asbestos insulation from earlier construction. The garbage-burning operation was closed in 1994 by order of Governor Mario Cuomo, but the asbestos installed during the plant’s earlier decades remained embedded in its infrastructure long after each operational era ended.
Asbestos Woven into Every System
Like all major steam-generating facilities built during the mid-twentieth century, the Sheridan Avenue Steam Station relied extensively on asbestos throughout its critical equipment. Up until the mid-1970s, asbestos was used in the utility industry as insulation for high-heat temperature equipment, such as turbines, large boilers, pumps, steam lines, and valves.
At a plant like Sheridan Avenue, which generated massive quantities of steam on a continuous basis, the scope of asbestos use was vast. Asbestos block insulation was applied to a variety of equipment, and on occasion, the block insulation was cut prior to its application, which emitted asbestos dust and fibers into the air. Asbestos-containing insulating cement and pipe covering were applied to pipes and steam lines. Asbestos gaskets and packing material could be found in valves and pumps throughout the steam system.
The plant generated up to 4 million pounds of steam a day, a staggering volume that required an equally staggering network of pipes, valves, boilers, and fittings, all of which, in the plant’s operational prime, were insulated, sealed, and packed with asbestos-containing materials.
The Workers Who Paid the Price
The men and women who maintained the Sheridan Avenue Steam Station were not passive bystanders to the asbestos surrounding them as their work required them to engage with it directly, repeatedly, and without protection.
Equipment at the steam station was often disrupted by power station laborers because of the constant need to maintain and update dated equipment, which required the removal and application of asbestos materials. This process exposed workers to asbestos dust, which filled the air. Even laborers who did not handle asbestos-containing materials may have been exposed to dust and fibers emitted from maintenance procedures.
The trades most directly affected included those responsible for the plant’s most critical systems. Workers were required to cut through boiler insulation during overhauls and emergency repairs. Climbing in, workers were exposed to more asbestos, from gaskets, packing, and other fibrous materials. Turbines were generally fitted with an asbestos jacket to trap heat and protect workers from serious injuries, and numerous pieces of the turbine itself contained various asbestos components, including asbestos gaskets in the electrical products.
Workers that performed repair work at powerhouses like this were exposed to vast amounts of asbestos while completing maintenance on equipment such as pumps, valves, and air compressors, all of which relied on asbestos gaskets, packing, and mechanical seals to function properly.
Pipefitters, electricians, maintenance mechanics, boiler operators and tenders, plumbers, welders, and laborers were all likely exposed to asbestos when they installed, inspected, maintained, repaired, and replaced plant equipment. Exposure also occurred during scheduled maintenance shut-downs and upgrades.
A Community That Has Long Carried the Burden
The Sheridan Avenue Steam Station’s impact on the surrounding neighborhood extends well beyond the workers inside the plant. For decades, neighborhood activists have called for the closure of the Sheridan Avenue steam-generating facility. Community advocates have been arguing that since 1911, through coal, oil, gas, and trash, the community has been poisoned.
Residents spoke out about cancer impacts from the Sheridan Avenue Steam Plant, raising concerns that echo those of workers who spent their careers inside its walls. For the families of plant employees, the risk was compounded by secondary exposure as asbestos fibers were carried home on work clothes, in hair, and on skin, and were contaminating the domestic environment.
The Long Reach of Latency
What makes asbestos-related disease so particularly devastating is the decades-long gap between exposure and diagnosis. Mesothelioma, the aggressive, incurable cancer caused by asbestos, can take anywhere from 10 to 60 years to emerge after the initial exposure. A boiler tender who spent the 1960s and 1970s maintaining the Sheridan Avenue plant’s equipment may have gone decades without symptoms, only to receive a life-altering diagnosis well into retirement.
Most workers were not aware of the dangers of exposure to asbestos dust, and carried on their work without masks or protective gear. Even workers who were not in direct contact with asbestos materials remain at risk for the development of asbestos-related diseases such as mesothelioma or lung cancer.
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. The workers at Sheridan Avenue who installed, repaired, and replaced asbestos-laden equipment had no idea what they were breathing in.
What This Means Today
Workers who were employed at power stations prior to the 1990s are at a high risk of developing mesothelioma, lung cancer, and other asbestos-related diseases. For anyone who worked at the Sheridan Avenue Steam Station during the plant’s most asbestos-saturated decades, and for family members who may have been exposed secondhand, the risk remains real and present today.
If you or someone you love worked at the Sheridan Avenue Steam Station and has since been diagnosed with mesothelioma, lung cancer, asbestosis, or another asbestos-related illness, time is a critical factor. Statutes of limitations apply to asbestos claims, and the window to pursue compensation can close. An experienced asbestos attorney can help identify the responsible parties, including manufacturers of the specific asbestos-containing products used at the plant, and pursue the justice that affected workers and their families deserve.
