State officials trying to quell concerns over Foxconn water
Racine could pull 7M gallons daily for factory
Wisconsin officials have sought to placate other states that have raised concerns over the decision to allow Racine to tap Lake Michigan to supply the Foxconn Technology Group manufacturing complex.
The Department of Natural Resources convened a conference call on May 3 with the states and followed up with a detailed defense of its decision that would supply an average of 7 million gallons of water a day to neighboring Mount Pleasant.
Wisconsin wants to avoid any
potential intervention by the states and Canadian provinces in the Great Lakes Compact because they have the authority to formally challenge the water plan, slowing the Foxconn project just as it kicks into high gear.
The state’s actions came after Michigan and Pennsylvania recently questioned aspects of the deal.
Mount Pleasant straddles the Lake Michigan-Mississippi River divide, and water moved out of the basin is managed collectively by the Great Lakes Compact, an agreement of the eight states that border the lakes. Quebec and Ontario have a parallel accord.
A Michigan official who was on the conference call said states and provinces wanted a better understanding of Wisconsin’s rationale, particularly how the diversion would comply with compact requirements that water use be for public purposes.
The 2008 agreement generally forbids the movement of water outside the Great Lakes basin, with some exceptions.
“I would say at the end of the conversation, there were still some questions about how it really all fit together,” said Grant Trigger, who is Michigan’s representative on the Great Lakes Compact council.
“But, by and large, Wisconsin did a very good job of summarizing the process they had used during that call.”
Trigger said Michigan has not yet concluded its review. He said Michigan is evaluating the precedent of Racine’s request, including whether the diversion would primarily serve residential customers, as required by the compact.
Wisconsin approved Racine’s request in April under an exception in the compact that allows water in some cases to go to “straddling communities” — municipalities that have land where water flows to the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins.
Challenge filed
On a separate front, on May 25, four organizations filed a legal challenge to the DNR’s decision, contending the agency violated compact requirements that say water transfers must be for “public water supply purposes” that serve a “group of largely residential customers that may also serve industrial, commercial, and other institutional operators.”
The groups are Milwaukee Riverkeeper, River Alliance of Wisconsin, League of Women Voters of Wisconsin and Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy. Midwest Environmental Advocates, a public interest law firm in Madison, filed a petition seeking a hearing before a state administrative law judge.
Of the 7 million gallons a day Racine would provide to Mount Pleasant, 5.8 million gallons, or 83%, are earmarked for Foxconn, according to the city’s application. It’s estimated that 39% of the water would be lost through evaporation and the company’s manufacturing process.
In addition to the concerns of Michigan, a Pennsylvania official wrote Wisconsin two days before the May 3 meeting, questioning the industrial use of water for Foxconn and raised other issues.
However, the official told the DNR on May 24 that Pennsylvania now believes Racine’s request complies with the compact.
“Our concerns weren’t unique to Pennsylvania,” said Timothy J. Bruno, chief of Pennsylvania’s Great Lakes office. “There were other states, as well as other nongovernmental organizations, across the Great Lakes that were raising the same issues.”
Still, Bruno believes Racine’s request raises other issues he thinks Great Lakes states should study, including enabling laws in each state, what other water demands like Mount Pleasant’s could emerge in the basin and how states define public use. Trigger and Bruno said they expect the diversion will come up at the next meeting of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway River Basin Water Resources Council on June 21 in Duluth, Minn.
The compact allows states and provinces to challenge a decision like Wisconsin’s if a majority believes the proposal is “regionally significant or potentially precedent setting,” according to compact language. That has not happened before.
“Whether that will bring a specific resolution (for) any outstanding questions that might exist, I can’t predict,” Trigger said.
Servicing Foxconn
The DNR approved Racine’s request to divert Lake Michigan water to Mount Pleasant on April 25.
The request was driven by the needs of Foxconn, which could employ up to 13,000 workers — the largest economic development project in state history and aided by $3 billion in state incentives.
The deal has been championed because of the job creation and spinoff investment. Critics, meanwhile, have complained about the public subsidies — about $4 billion when local funds are factored in — as well as special regulatory treatment for the company.
According to state documents, four states asked the DNR to provide more details on the diversion.
Illinois asked for assurances that water leaving Foxconn would be adequately treated by Racine’s wastewater system before it is returned to Lake Michigan.
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said in an email that the “Wisconsin DNR provided some information about how Foxconn will treat its wastewater, but until my office can review the detailed engineering plans about the protection of Lake Michigan, I will continue to have concerns.”
Michigan, Pennsylvania and New York questioned whether the diversion would meet requirements that it serve a public water supply use.
“I think this is the much tougher issue,” said David Strifling, director of Marquette University Law School’s Water Law and Policy Initiative.
The DNR declined to comment on the Racine diversion for this story and instead pointed to the explanations in its letter to the states and provinces.
The agency argued Racine operates an interconnected water supply system and most of those customers are residential — and will remain so. Racine’s customer base is about 90% residential and 90% of Mount Pleasant customers the city now serves are residential.
The DNR said even with millions of gallons going to Foxconn daily, water supplied to Mount Pleasant will remain “largely residential,” with state officials basing their measure on the number of customers — not the volume of water.
Bruno, the Pennsylvania official, said that is one area that needs further discussion. “Is that something we want to encourage over the long run?” he said.
Strifling said the groups mounting the legal challenge are taking the position that “we should look at the end use of the water — and it’s going to Foxconn.”
“Obviously, that’s not a residential customer.”