Foxconn: What Environmental Rollbacks Will Mean

RACINE COUNTY, WI — Rollback of environmental regulations at the state level could have profound impact in Racine County as officials work out the details to get Foxconn to build a $10 billion electronics factory in the county.

“They are just handing autonomy to a Chinese corporation that will then have control over water in this state,” said Raj Shukla, executive director of the River Alliance of Wisconsin, in a Wisconsin State Journal report.

The proposed environmental rollbacks include allowing Foxconn to: skip an environmental impact statement, create artificial waterways that connect to streams, and skirt DNR regulations pertaining to discharging "dredged or fill material" into waterways - as long as they compensate for the damage "in other ways."

Heavy Metal Problem

Foxconn has been in trouble before, and has been under scrutiny for polluting waterways near their Chinese factories. According to reports, the release of heavy metals such as lead and cadmium have appeared in otherwise arable land near those factories.

The Details

The state Legislative Fiscal Bureau authored a summary of a bill pledging incentives to Foxconn. According to the bill:

• The bill would specify that any permit or approval issued for a new manufacturing facility within such as Foxconn would not need to undergo an environmental impact statement. Under current law, all state agencies are required to prepare environmental impact statements for every recommendation or report on proposals for legislation and other major actions significantly affecting the quality of the human environment.
• The bill would provide an exemption from DNR permitting requirements related to discharging dredged or fill material into a wetland for the construction, access, or operation of a new manufacturing facility such as Foxconn.
• As a part of the bill, the state would require that a company such as Foxconn would "compensate for adverse [environmental] impacts" in one of the following ways: 1) purchase credits from a wetland mitigation bank located in Wisconsin; 2) participate in the Wisconsin Wetland Conservation Trust (WWCT) in-lieu fee (ILF) program; 3) complete wetland mitigation in Wisconsin; or 4) participate in the escrow program, to deposit funds for future wetland mitigation in Wisconsin.
• The bill would also specify that DNR would waive its water quality certification related to discharges into wetlands.

Changing Streams

• Construction, dredging or enlargement of an artificial water body that connects with an existing navigable waterway, or is within 500 feet of the ordinary high-water mark of an existing navigable waterway

• Grading or removal of topsoil from the bank of a navigable waterway where the area exposed would exceed 10,000 square feet.

The bill would provide an exemption from DNR permitting requirements related to straightening or changing the course of navigable streams for activities related to the construction, access, or operation of a new manufacturing facility such as Foxconn.

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