About Bailly Generating Station | Chesterton, IN | Northern Indiana
Bailly Generating Station is a former coal-fired power plant in Chesterton, Porter County, Indiana, operated by Northern Indiana Public Service Company LLC (NIPSCO), a NiSource Inc. subsidiary. The plant served hundreds of thousands of customers across northern Indiana before its retirement.
Facility Facts:
- Location: Chesterton, Indiana (near Lake Michigan)
- Operator: NIPSCO (NiSource Inc.)
- Fuel Type: Coal
- Status: Retired
Like virtually every major coal-fired power plant built during the mid-20th century, Bailly was reportedly constructed and maintained using substantial quantities of asbestos-containing materials. Standard suppliers to utility companies and industrial contractors throughout the Ohio River industrial corridor included .
Multi-State Exposure Pathways
Many workers at Bailly lived in Indiana or Illinois, commuted through the industrial corridor, or later worked at comparable facilities in the region. That overlap makes filing an asbestos lawsuit in Indiana directly relevant for Indiana plant workers with ties to Indiana facilities, including:
- comparable regional power stations (AES Indiana/AES Indiana)
- comparable regional power stations
- regional chemical operations Company facilities in Indianapolis
- regional steel operations in the region
Indiana residents diagnosed with mesothelioma or other asbestos-related disease have specific legal rights under Ind. Code § 34-20-3-1 and may pursue claims simultaneously in Indiana courts and through asbestos bankruptcy trust funds.
General Equipment at Bailly Generating Station | Chesterton, IN | Northern Indiana
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.
Documented Asbestos Evidence — Indiana
The records below are verified, state-documented asbestos removals at this facility. Each entry represents a regulated abatement project where the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) 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 IDEM 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:
Who May Have Been Exposed at Bailly Generating Station | Chesterton, IN | Northern Indiana
Insulators and Thermal Insulators
Heat and Frost Insulators represented the occupational group with the single highest asbestos exposure risk at coal-fired power plants. These workers installed and removed asbestos-containing thermal insulation from boilers, pipes, valves, and fittings — cutting, wrapping, and fastening products like calcium silicate pipe insulation, Thermobestos, and pipe insulation with no respiratory protection during most of Bailly’s operational life. They worked in confined boiler rooms and pipe tunnels where airborne fiber concentrations were highest.
Workers at Bailly may have been affiliated with Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1 and related Midwest locals.
Pipefitters and Plumbers
Pipefitters reportedly encountered asbestos-containing materials while installing and repairing high-temperature piping systems, removing and replacing asbestos-containing insulation, performing valve maintenance with gasket materials from , gaskets and packing, and , and working in pipe tunnels where airborne fiber concentrations accumulated. Workers at Bailly may have been affiliated with UA Local 157 or UA Local 210 — locals with documented industrial work assignments throughout the Midwest.
Electricians
Electricians may have been exposed to asbestos-containing materials in electrical vaults and switchgear rooms, during cable installations using asbestos-containing insulation jackets, during equipment maintenance near transformers and motor controls, and during demolition and renovation work in electrical systems throughout the plant.
Plant Maintenance and Operations Personnel
Maintenance workers and operators employed directly by NIPSCO may have faced ongoing daily exposure — performing general repairs in all plant areas, conducting housekeeping in areas with deteriorating asbestos-containing insulation, and sustaining continuous contact with friable ACMs that degraded progressively over decades of plant operation.
Construction and Contract Workers
Large numbers of contract tradespeople worked at Bailly during construction, outages, and renovation projects. Many were dispatched from Indiana-based unions and contractors, creating direct connections to Indiana legal jurisdiction. These workers may have been exposed to asbestos-containing materials during the highest-intensity disturbance activities across multiple phases of the facility’s life.
Laborers and Material Handlers
Laborers and material handlers may have been exposed while transporting asbestos-containing materials and equipment, cleaning work areas where ACMs were being disturbed, and handling waste materials containing asbestos debris — often with no awareness that the dust surrounding them was hazardous.
Indiana — Filing Deadline & Next Steps
Indiana law gives mesothelioma and asbestos-disease claimants 2 years from the date of medical diagnosis to file a personal-injury lawsuit (Ind. Code § 34-11-2-4). For wrongful-death claims after an asbestos-related death, the filing window is 2 years from the date of death (Ind. Code § 34-23-1-1). 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
- 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.
- Preserve medical records. Pathology reports, biopsy results, imaging, and pulmonary-function tests are central to both civil claims and trust-fund filings.
- 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.
- Speak with an asbestos attorney with Indiana 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 — Indiana
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.
Data Sources — Indiana
Information about facility equipment, industrial materials, and occupational records referenced on this page is drawn from publicly available sources where applicable, including:
- EPA ECHO Facility Compliance Database — enforcement and compliance records for industrial facilities
- OSHA Establishment Search — federal workplace inspection history
- EIA Form 860 Plant Data — power-plant equipment and ownership records (where applicable)
- Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) NESHAP asbestos abatement notification records
- Published asbestos trial and trust fund records (publicly filed court documents)
- AsbestosIndex Product & Manufacturer Crosswalk — historical asbestos-containing product schedules linked to manufacturers
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.