Asbestos at the Somerset Generating Station in Niagara County, New York

Along the southern shore of Lake Ontario in Niagara County, New York, a power plant with its 613-foot concrete smokestack rose above the rural farmland of Somerset, New York, visible on clear days from the shores of Toronto and communities across the lake. For more than three decades it burned coal on a scale difficult to imagine. The Kintigh Generating Station, also known as the Somerset Power Plant, was located on the southern shore of Lake Ontario, in Barker, New York. The 675-megawatt facility began operating in 1984. For the workers who built, operated, and maintained this massive plant, many of them from the nearby towns of Olcott, Barker, and Somerset itself, it was a source of steady employment and community pride. Unfortunately, for many, it was also a source of asbestos exposure.

Massive User of Coal… and Asbestos

Kintigh was built by NYSEG, and later sold to the AES Corporation, a multi-national energy company headquartered in Virginia. In 1999, AES purchased six power plants in New York, including the Somerset station, from NGE Generation, Inc. for approximately $953 million. The plant then passed through additional ownership changes before ultimately being retired on March 31, 2020. It was the last coal-fired plant remaining in operation in New York State and its closure fulfilled Governor Cuomo’s pledge to phase out coal by 2020.

But for all the attention paid to the plant’s coal combustion and air pollution, another dangerous hazard was present at the plant from the very beginning: asbestos. Coal-burning generating stations, like Kintigh, are almost uniformly built with asbestos-containing materials, due to the extreme heat generated by burning coal. At Somerset, this was not a peripheral concern because asbestos was part of plant’s entire infrastructure, touching nearly every major system in the facility.

The associated extreme temperature applications, such as steam pipes, turbines, boilers, tanks, and other vessels, were typically insulated with asbestos-containing products like pipe covering, block insulation, gaskets, and refractory cement. At one time, Kintigh burned more than 5,000 tons of coal each day. The boilers, steam lines, turbines, condensers, pumps, and valves required to manage that volume of combustion all depended on asbestos-containing insulation and sealing materials to operate under the immense heat and pressure involved.

The Equipment That Put Workers at Risk

Every major category of equipment at the Somerset plant represented a point of potential asbestos exposure for the workers who maintained it. Boilers also used asbestos in gaskets on the boiler door, various access windows and plates, and where the boiler was connected to piping or equipment. Boiler workers would have to install, repair, and replace asbestos insulation on the inside and outside of boilers. This was an extremely dusty process. In addition, gaskets on boiler doors, windows, plates, and other connections would have to be changed on a regular basis.

Turbines presented comparable risks. 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 hundreds of pumps and valves that moved water, steam, oil, and chemicals throughout the facility were no less hazardous. 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 and inside 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.

Demolition of the Smokestack

On January 14, 2025, the 613-foot smokestack was taken down in a controlled demolition, marking the end of an era for residents who for decades were used to the landmark towering over the area. Since 2020, when the power generating plant was retired, the campus has been converted into a digital data center.

Who is at Risk

The asbestos hazard at Somerset was not confined to any single trade or department. 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.

Insulators covered equipment with materials containing asbestos. Sheet metal workers were in close proximity to workers installing asbestos materials. Even workers who never directly handled asbestos-containing products were not safe. Workers and laborers in powerhouses like Kintigh remain at elevated risks for developing mesothelioma and lung cancer. The very air inside the plant during maintenance cycles could carry invisible asbestos fibers, placing every worker in the vicinity at risk whether or not they were directly involved with machinery that contained asbestos.

The danger also did not end at the plant gates. Workers who spent their shifts breathing asbestos-contaminated air carried fibers home on their clothing, in their hair, and on their skin. Family members, like spouses who washed work clothes or children who greeted a parent at the door, could be exposed to the same fibers through what is known as secondary, or “take-home,” asbestos exposure.

Corporate Accountability

The Somerset plant’s long and complex ownership history, from NYSEG to AES Corporation to Upstate New York Power Producers to Riesling Power and Beowulf Energy, involved multiple corporate entities with legal responsibilities for the plant’s condition and the safety of its workers. But the manufacturers of the asbestos-containing products installed throughout the plant bear a separate and significant accountability of their own.

The companies who manufactured these asbestos-containing products were acutely aware of the dangers associated with their products. Yet, for decades, these companies prospered wildly while thousands of powerhouse workers were needlessly exposed to carcinogenic asbestos fibers. The knowledge that asbestos caused serious lung disease had been documented in medical literature dating back to the 1930s. That knowledge did not result in warnings to the workers who handled these products every day.

Mesothelioma Development Takes Decades After Exposure

Mesothelioma, the aggressive and incurable cancer of the tissue lining surrounding the lungs, abdomen, or heart, can take anywhere from 10 to 60 years to emerge after initial exposure. Workers are at risk of developing mesothelioma for decades after their exposure to asbestos in power plants. In addition to mesothelioma, asbestos exposure can cause other cancers whose symptoms don’t appear until decades after the exposure occurs.

Power plant workers are eight times more likely to die of mesothelioma than the general population. The risk is especially high for employees who worked in power plants before the 1990s, when asbestos was widely used for its heat-resistant and insulating properties. Today, large numbers of power plant workers from that era are receiving mesothelioma diagnoses.

For workers who were present at Somerset during its construction phase in the early 1980s, or who worked there through the plant’s peak operational decades, the timing of that diagnostic window is now. A construction worker who helped build the plant in 1983 may be only now confronting symptoms that trace directly back to asbestos disturbed during that work.

What Former Workers and Their Families Should Know

Multi-million dollar awards have been obtained for workers injured in powerhouses like Kintigh. Former workers and their families are not without recourse, but time is of the essence. Statutes of limitations govern asbestos claims in New York, and the window to file can close.

If you or someone you love worked at the Somerset/Kintigh Generating Station in Niagara County during its construction, its coal-burning decades, or its later years of operation and has since been diagnosed with mesothelioma, lung cancer, asbestosis, or another asbestos-related illness, consulting an experienced asbestos attorney is an essential first step. Legal specialists in asbestos litigation can identify the specific manufacturers whose products were used at the plant and pursue compensation on your behalf.