About Clifton Power Station | Clifton

Clifton, Kansas sits in Washington County in north-central Kansas. Like many small communities across the Great Plains and the broader Kansas-Missouri-Illinois regional corridor, Clifton relied on local and regional electrical generating infrastructure typically owned and operated by municipal utilities or rural electric cooperatives.

Asbestos-containing materials were not incidental to power station operations — they were engineered into how these facilities functioned from the ground up. Power generating stations operate at extreme temperatures and require materials that can withstand constant thermal stress. Asbestos-containing materials were selected and systematically installed for three reasons: thermal insulation in steam boilers exceeding 1,000°F, high-pressure turbines, heat exchangers, and exhaust systems; fire resistance through asbestos-containing fireproofing, fire doors, fire-rated walls, and cable tray coatings; and electrical insulation in electrical panel components, arc chutes, switchgear, and high-temperature wiring insulation throughout generating stations of this era.

From approximately 1930 through the mid-1970s, asbestos use in power stations reached its peak. Even after new installations largely ceased in the late 1970s and 1980s, existing asbestos-containing materials remained in place — creating ongoing exposure risks during maintenance, repair, and renovation work through the 1990s and beyond. Along the regional industrial corridor, where major generating facilities cluster from Wichita northward through the region and into Madison and St. Clair Counties in Illinois, NESHAP abatement records document the scope of asbestos-containing materials that were present at facilities of this type during that era.

The following generating units are documented at Clifton Power Station: Clifton (Ks) Gt 1 (1974, 70 MW, Gas) and Clifton (Ks) Ic 2 (1974, 3 MW, Oil), both listed as Operating in the North American Electric Generating Plants database maintained by UDI/S&P Global.

General Equipment at Clifton Power Station | Clifton

The equipment below represents the systems and infrastructure documented or typically present at this facility during the era when asbestos-containing materials were specified in industrial construction. This is general facility-equipment reference — not a legal attribution of any specific product, manufacturer, or exposure event to this facility. Material-category and manufacturer information is addressed in the AsbestosIndex Product Crosswalk linked under the records table below.

Boilers View crosswalk › Steam Turbines View crosswalk › Steam Traps View crosswalk › Condensers View crosswalk › Feedwater Heaters View crosswalk › Cooling Towers View crosswalk › Pipe Insulation View crosswalk › Block Insulation View crosswalk › Refractory Lining View crosswalk › Valves View crosswalk › Gaskets View crosswalk › Pumps View crosswalk ›

Documented Asbestos Evidence — Kansas

The records below are verified, state-documented asbestos removals at this facility. Each entry represents a regulated abatement project where the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) was notified under federal NESHAP rules, the work was logged, and the asbestos-containing material was confirmed and removed under regulated conditions. These are not allegations or estimates — they are paper records tying documented asbestos-containing material to this specific site.

No KDHE NESHAP abatement notifications have been identified for this facility in current public records. Per the framing above, absence of state-agency documentation should not be read as absence of asbestos — only as absence of a formal, regulated abatement event meeting reporting thresholds. Workers who recall encountering pipe insulation, block insulation, gaskets, or other asbestos-era construction materials at this facility may still have viable claims regardless of whether a state record exists.

Material Categories in Documented Records

The materials documented above (and similar asbestos-containing materials commonly encountered in records of this type) appear in the AsbestosIndex catalog with historical manufacturer and trust-fund information. Click a category to view manufacturers historically associated with that material:

Thermal System Insulation View crosswalk › Asbestos-Cement Board View crosswalk › Pipe Insulation View crosswalk › Roofing & Flashing View crosswalk › Spray Fireproofing View crosswalk › Floor Tile & Mastic View crosswalk › Ceiling Tile View crosswalk › Gaskets & Packing View crosswalk ›

Who May Have Been Exposed at Clifton Power Station | Clifton

Workers at Clifton Power Station and similar Kansas-Kansas facilities included full-time operations and maintenance staff — engineers, boilermakers, electricians, operators — as well as regular contract crews dispatched for major overhauls and capital improvements. Traveling tradespeople, including insulators, pipefitters, millwrights, and others, worked at multiple facilities across the region. These workers were often affiliated with union locals including Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1 (based in Wichita, Kansas, with jurisdiction extending across Kansas; members reportedly worked at Clifton-area facilities as well as at major Kansas power stations), Plumbers and Pipefitters UA Local 441, Boilermakers Local 83, and regional chapters of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW).

Insulators directly handled asbestos-containing pipe covering, block insulation, blanket insulation, and insulating cement, mixing and applying materials in ways that released significant airborne fibers, and cutting, shaping, and fitting asbestos-containing materials to complex piping systems. Pipefitters worked in direct proximity to insulators applying or removing asbestos-containing pipe covering, disturbed existing insulation during pipe repair and valve replacement, handled asbestos-containing gaskets and packing material in valve stems and pump seals, and worked near boilers lined with asbestos-containing materials. Boilermakers worked on boilers encased in multiple layers of asbestos-containing materials, applied asbestos-containing refractory cement to fireboxes and combustion chambers, handled asbestos-containing rope and gasket materials for boiler door seals, and performed work during planned and emergency outages when disturbed insulation created the highest fiber concentrations. Electricians may have been exposed to airborne fibers during work near boilers and other heavily insulated systems and handled asbestos-containing electrical components. Operators and maintenance technicians monitored equipment containing visible asbestos-containing materials and performed routine maintenance on insulated piping. Millwrights disassembled and reassembled equipment components surrounded by asbestos-containing gaskets and packing materials.

Kansas — Filing Deadline & Next Steps

Kansas law gives mesothelioma and asbestos-disease claimants 2 years from the date of medical diagnosis to file a personal-injury lawsuit (K.S.A. § 60-513). For wrongful-death claims after an asbestos-related death, the filing window is 2 years from the date of death (K.S.A. § 60-1903). The two deadlines run on separate tracks — preserving one does not extend the other.

The personal-injury clock runs from diagnosis, not from exposure. Mesothelioma latency is typically 20 to 50 years, so workers exposed in the 1950s–1980s are being diagnosed today.

Practical first steps

  1. Document what you remember. Pay stubs, W-2s, union cards, photographs, coworker names, and dates of employment. The WorkChain widget on this page can save a copy you can email yourself.
  2. Preserve medical records. Pathology reports, biopsy results, imaging, and pulmonary-function tests are central to both civil claims and trust-fund filings.
  3. Identify household members. Spouses who laundered work clothing and children of plant workers are eligible for secondary-exposure claims when diagnosed with an asbestos-related disease.
  4. Speak with an asbestos attorney with Kansas experience. The first conversation is free and confidential. Asbestos trust-fund claims and civil claims run on different tracks — both can be pursued in parallel.
Asbestos-Related Diseases — Kansas

Asbestos fiber exposure can cause several specific diseases that typically appear decades after the original exposure. The latency period — the gap between exposure and diagnosis — usually runs 20 to 50 years. That's why workers exposed in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s are receiving diagnoses today.

Mesothelioma

A rare, aggressive cancer that affects the lining of the lungs (pleural mesothelioma), abdomen (peritoneal), or heart (pericardial). Mesothelioma is almost exclusively caused by asbestos exposure, which is why a mesothelioma diagnosis often points directly to historical workplace exposure. Average latency from first exposure to diagnosis is 30-50 years.

Asbestosis

A chronic, non-cancerous scarring of lung tissue caused by inhaled asbestos fibers. Asbestosis causes progressive shortness of breath, persistent cough, and reduced lung function. It does not improve with treatment, and it is a recognized basis for a claim under most trust schedules and civil claims.

Lung Cancer

Asbestos exposure significantly increases the risk of lung cancer, particularly when combined with a history of smoking. Asbestos-related lung cancer is compensable under the same trust schedules and civil claim avenues as mesothelioma.

Other Recognized Diseases

Pleural plaques, pleural thickening, laryngeal cancer, ovarian cancer, and certain gastrointestinal cancers are also recognized as asbestos-related under various trust schedules and case-law authorities, though eligibility and proof requirements vary by claim type.

If you have any of these diagnoses and you worked at this facility, lived with someone who did, or were exposed in any documented capacity, you may have a claim worth pursuing. Speak with an attorney before assuming you don't qualify.

Cross-State & Regional Corridor Workers

Traveling tradespeople, including insulators, pipefitters, millwrights, and others, worked at multiple facilities across the region. Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1 (based in Wichita, Kansas, with jurisdiction extending across Kansas) members are alleged to have performed this work at both Kansas-side facilities including comparable regional power stations and at Kansas and Illinois regional sites. Plumbers and Pipefitters UA Local 441 had members dispatched to facilities across Kansas, Kansas, and southern Illinois. Boilermakers Local 83, comparable regional power stations (the region — situated directly on the regional industrial corridor), comparable regional power stations (the region), and regional steel operations (the region — directly across the river from Wichita).
Data Sources — Kansas

Information about facility equipment, industrial materials, and occupational records referenced on this page is drawn from publicly available sources where applicable, including:

If specific equipment or product claims in this article are sourced from a non-public database, the source is identified parenthetically within the text above.