Foxconn will need environmental reviews as DNR labors with smaller workforce

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Foxconn Technology Group’s plans for a sprawling manufacturing plant will trigger a massive and complex review by state regulators at a time when Wisconsin’s environmental agency is grappling with a depleted workforce.

Foxconn Technology Group's planned $10 billion southeastern Wisconsin investment would include paying around $50 million for a 1,000-acre development site.

The Taiwanese company will require an array of air and water pollution permits, ranging from prescribed limits on smokestacks to the construction of green infrastructure to keeping rain from washing off a 1,000-acre campus and flooding neighboring areas.

“This is going to require all hands on deck,” former Natural Resources Secretary Matt Frank said.

Many questions remain — notably, the site Foxconn will choose for a $10 billion electronics plant in southeastern Wisconsin.

But as plans move ahead, Frank said the Department of Natural Resources faces an enormous workload — and pressure — to rigorously review the largest commercial project in state history.

“This may present additional challenges,” said Frank, DNR secretary under Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle. “You already have people working at full capacity on existing projects and then you bring in a big project like this one.

“Will they have the resources to do the work thoroughly and in a timely manner? If you are a manager at the DNR, that is the question you are thinking about.”

On Thursday, a memorandum of understanding signed by Gov. Scott Walker and Foxconn founder and chairman Terry Gou promises to expedite the state's review process for the project, and there is speculation some existing regulations could be eased.

DNR employment has dropped consistently during the administrations of Doyle and Walker, a Republican. Since the start of Walker's term in 2011, the workforce has fallen from 2,720 to 2,564 – a drop of 6%, according to agency figures.

The number of vacant positions now stands at more than 350, compounding staffing woes.

The DNR declined to make an official available to discuss the Foxconn project, in part, because the company has not identified a location.

Spokesman Jim Dick said the "Foxconn news is a great opportunity for the state of Wisconsin," adding the "department stands ready and able to process and act on the various permits that might be involved in a timely manner."

But staffing problems have plagued the DNR in recent years.

In June 2016, the state's Legislative Audit Bureau found numerous problems in the agency's wastewater program for factories, municipalities and large farms, including permit backlogs from 2005 to 2015 for industrial customers.

Foxconn will need an industrial wastewater permit.

With a shrinking workforce and increasing demands on personnel, the DNR has responded by reorganizing the agency and prioritizing duties to make sure the most important work gets done.

Officials reported this month to lawmakers that its wastewater permit program still has backlogs, but is improving, For municipal and industrial customers it stands at 17%. That compares to 23% a year ago.

As part of the reorganization, the DNR says it intends to allow companies to take on more of the workload of preparing permit applications — a decision that has raised red flags in the environmental community.

But the DNR says its regulatory duties will not be compromised, and it insists all parties benefit if it can tap companies' expertise when writing complex permits.

As the Foxconn project unfolds, the company will need multiple state approvals, including access to Lake Michigan water for manufacturing. Regional economic development officials said Foxconn will choose a site in the Lake Michigan basin to ensure it has a ready access to water.

The Foxconn project is also likely to impact wetlands and could receive favored treatment.

State law says a company should take steps to avoid destruction of wetlands. But the Legislature in recent years has eased limits on developing land containing them.

There is speculation lawmakers will ease those standards further for Foxconn during a special session planned to provide a financial incentive package for the company.

Lawmakers re-wrote mining laws in 2013 at the request of Gogebic Taconite after the company proposed to build a large open pit iron mine in Ashland and Iron counties. The mine has not been built.

Frank, the former DNR secretary, said he believed Foxconn should be able to move ahead with its plans under existing laws.

The company's desire for so much land may be influenced by the need to store water when once-undeveloped property is covered with asphalt and concrete, said Kevin J. Muhs, deputy director of the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission.

Detention basins are required for all such projects under state law, but "this would be a really big one," Muhs said.

The company's air permit could be complicated by stricter ozone regulations advanced by the Obama administration, although President Donald Trump has ordered the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to delay implementing the rules.

Another issue: Will the DNR require an environmental impact statement? The analysis, which could run hundreds of pages, analyzes issues involving construction of the plant, ranging from effects on archaeological sites to the level of air pollution.

An option is to mandate a less rigorous environmental assessment, but Frank said he believes the agency is likely to require an environmental impact statement, in part, to avoid a court challenge from environmentalists.