Wisconsin Foxconn Technology Group development project | | Wisconsin DNR

On Oct. 4, 2017, Foxconn announced it will be locating its first U.S. manufacturing facility in the village of Mount Pleasant in Racine County. The Foxconn Technology Group (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co.. Ltd.) is a multinational electronics manufacturing company headquartered in Taiwan. The company is the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer and the fourth-largest information technology company.

As required by law, prior to construction and operation of the new facility, Foxconn must work with the state on receiving the appropriate permits and follow state and federal standards, including but not limited to applicable air and water quality and solid and hazardous waste regulations. Also, Foxconn is subject to federal wetland permitting requirements and must properly mitigate any impact on wetlands.

The DNR will be working with Foxconn, local government officials and other state and federal agencies to ensure all applicable permit requirements are met, including consideration of any environmental impacts associated with any permits or approvals.

In September 2017, the State Legislature passed 2017 Wisconsin Act 58, authorizing the state to create an Electronics and Information Technology Manufacturing (EITM) Zone, within which Foxconn will be operating. The act also directed the DNR to “ensure that the conditions of applicable permits, licenses, and approvals under the department’s jurisdiction are met for all activities related to the construction, access, or operation of a new manufacturing facility within an electronics and information technology manufacturing zone designated under section 238.396 (1m) of the statutes, including but not limited to permits, licenses, and approvals required under [chapters 23 through 299] of the statutes and any associated rules promulgated by the Department of Natural Resources.”

Water use

Water use

The city of Racine and Racine Water Utility submitted a straddling community diversion application to the department. Diversions of Great Lakes water are regulated under the Great Lakes Compact. The proposed diversion area includes the portion of the village of Mount Pleasant that is in the Mississippi River basin — including the area identified by Racine County as the future site of the Foxconn facility.

On April 25, 2018, the DNR approved the city’s request, and on May 25, 2018, a group of petitioners challenged the DNR’s approval.

The application, the status of the challenge to the approval and related materials are available on the Racine diversion page.

Wastewater

Wastewater

Foxconn has indicated that it intends to discharge wastewater to the city of Racine’s wastewater treatment plant. Therefore, the city, as an authorized pretreatment authority, will be the control authority. The state will provide oversight through audits, inspections and review of reports.

Federal and state law requires large municipal wastewater plants, such as Racine’s, to regulate their local contributing industries. The Racine wastewater treatment plant is in turn regulated by the DNR’s pretreatment program through a WPDES permit. The DNR’s pretreatment program protects discharges to Wisconsin waters via publicly owned treatment works (POTWs).

To date, Racine Water and Wastewater Utility (RWWU) received one official application for Phase 0 of the Foxconn project on Aug. 6, 2019, which entails discharge of approximately 20,000 gallons per day of sanitary/domestic wastewater, reverse osmosis concentrate/reject from treatment of city water and blowdown/condensate from make-up air units (MAU) and air handling units (AHUs) from office and assembly buildings to the sanitary sewer connected to the Racine POTW. After consultation with DNR staff, RWWU determined that the discharges are not subject to industrial pretreatment standards and, therefore, do not require permit coverage. Discharges from future phases of production may require permit coverage until the Zero Liquid Discharge system is completed.

Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) proposal

On June 19, 2018, Foxconn announced that it will implement Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) wastewater treatment technology at its manufacturing facility in Mount Pleasant. This wastewater treatment technology recycles almost all water from a facility and would, therefore, further decrease Foxconn’s water use demand and eliminate the return of any manufacturing process wastewater to Lake Michigan. When the ZLD system is in operation, the only Foxconn-related wastewater return flow to Lake Michigan would be domestic wastewater from its commercial operations, which will be treated at Racine’s wastewater treatment facility to meet state and federal standards.

The DNR will review Foxconn’s ZLD proposal to ensure compliance with all environmental permitting standards.