About Frank Ratts Generating Station
The Frank Ratts Generating Station — also called the Petersburg Generating Station — is a coal-fired electric generating facility near Petersburg, Pike County, Indiana. Hoosier Energy Rural Electric Cooperative, Inc., headquartered in Bloomington, Indiana, operated the plant and provided wholesale electricity to 18 rural electric member cooperatives across central and southern Indiana and southeastern Illinois.
Construction of Frank Ratts fell within what asbestos researchers identify as the peak asbestos era in American industrial construction — roughly the 1940s through the late 1970s. Coal-fired power plants were among the most asbestos-intensive worksites in American industrial history. The extreme heat, high pressure, massive scale, and fire safety requirements of these facilities meant asbestos-containing materials were built into virtually every system. The facility contained two generating units (Frank E Ratts 1 and 2), each with 125 MW capacity, coal-fired with front boilers, operating at 1450 PSI / 1000°F steam parameters.
General Equipment at Frank Ratts Generating Station
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.
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 Frank Ratts Generating Station
Pipefitters, insulators, maintenance workers, electricians, and dozens of other trades workers at this facility may have been exposed to asbestos-containing materials. Workers at this facility may have been exposed through maintenance and repair work, where insulators removed and replaced damaged or worn pipe insulation and pipefitters installed, removed, and replaced gaskets cut from sheet stock. Boilermakers replaced refractory materials and furnace gaskets in enclosed spaces. Members of Boilermakers Local 374 (based in Indianapolis) and affiliated Midwest locals reportedly worked at regional generating stations including facilities served by the same contractor networks as Frank Ratts. UA Local 157 members reportedly performed pipefitting and insulation work at regional power generation and heavy industrial facilities, including plants served by the same contractor networks operating at Frank Ratts.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.
Cross-State & Regional Corridor Workers
Frank Ratts served southeastern Illinois as part of Hoosier Energy’s distribution territory — meaning workers who may have been exposed at this Indiana facility often have connections to Indiana and Illinois, where additional legal options and filing venues may be available. The facility is part of the broader Ohio River industrial corridor connecting Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri power generation — a region where asbestos exposure litigation has a long-documented asbestos litigation history. The same manufacturers whose asbestos-containing products may have been present at Frank Ratts also reportedly supplied comparable facilities throughout the Ohio River industrial corridor, including AES Indiana’s comparable regional power stations and comparable regional power stations plant in Missouri, and regional steel operations across the river in Illinois — facilities where many of the same union trades worked under the same conditions with the same products.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.