Illinois border county worries about flooding impact from Foxconn

Worried that the massive Foxconn Technology Group project in Racine County could spur downstream flooding, officials in Illinois' Lake County have hired a consultant to assess potential stormwater impacts, heightening political tensions between the states over the manufacturing complex.

The Lake County Stormwater Management Commission is spending $74,000 to conduct an engineering study of Foxconn on the Des Plaines River watershed and how rain and melted snow will be managed on a site three times the size of the Pentagon.

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The action is the latest salvo from Illinois officials — many of them Democrats — who have criticized the potential water and air quality impacts from the giant $10 billion plant.

Foxconn — which will produce liquid crystal display panels for a range of applications — lies in the upper end of a river system that has long been prone to flooding. 

In the summer of 2017, Lake County was inundated with heavy rains and flash floods, including along the Des Plaines. In all, more than 3,200 homes were damaged, according to teams from the Illinois Emergency Management Agency and other agencies.

The river flooded again earlier this summer, and officials in Illinois said that Foxconn’s development — with millions of square feet of roads, parking lots and rooftops — raises new worries because the loss of wetlands and farmland could worsen flooding.

Concern over Wisconsin regulations

Separately, Illinois officials said they are worried about the teeth of Wisconsin wetlands regulations, which will not require Foxconn to replace lost water-capturing wetlands in the same watershed. 

“That is something that raises a red flag, and once we found out about that, we wanted to dive into this to get a more detailed analysis,” said Michael Warner, executive director of Lake County’s stormwater commission.

The commision announced this week it had hired Christopher B. Burke Engineering to review Foxconn’s plans for stormwater controls to ensure the project in the Village of Mount Pleasant won’t harm downstream neighbors.

Foxconn says it is aware of Lake County’s decision.

“As a global leader in sustainable manufacturing practices, Foxconn firmly believes that we have a responsibility to help protect the environment and mitigate against any potential negative impacts of our business on the environment,” the company said in a statement. “Foxconn is fully committed to complying with all rules and regulations that apply to our operations and to being a responsible corporate citizen.”

The Taiwan-based company and state and local officials in Wisconsin say a report in June by the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission found that Mount Pleasant’s stormwater regulations, which include requirements on how water is released after rains, will not increase downstream flood flows. 

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources also said Foxconn is building detention basins on the site to capture more than 260-acre-feet of water in the Des Plaines and Pike river watersheds.  

Vos responds to concerns

The latest action in Lake County, and other recent moves by Illinois Democrats, prompted Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Burlington) to write Monday in the Daily Herald, a suburban Chicago newspaper, defending Wisconsin’s environmental protections for the project and suggested “jealousy” could be the driving force.

“Before anyone criticizes the neighbor to the north and accepts false, politically-motivated rhetoric, I invite you to read up on the Foxconn facts,” Vos wrote in a guest column. “If you've grown tired of this negativity or your high-taxed, budget-strapped state, I would also like to invite you to be like Foxconn and choose Wisconsin to be your home.”

In June, Illinois U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth and U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider — all Democrats — urged the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to increase its oversight of the Foxconn project to guard against increased flooding in Lake County. 

RELATED:Foxconn industrial operations would represent a major new source of air pollution in region

Earlier this month, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel filed a legal challenge over the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s boundaries involving tougher smog regulations that would benefit Foxconn 

Madigan has also raised concerns about pollution impacts to Lake Michigan from Foxconn.  

Also, on May 31, the Democrat-controlled Illinois Senate passed a resolution urging state agencies to do what they can to protect against the loss of water resources and flooding from the Foxconn project. 

Lake County officials said they are not dismissing the regional economic benefits of Foxconn and its workforce of up to 13,000 employees.

But also they said they don’t want to see a single project imperil an estimated $69 million in flood mitigation spending over the past two decades. 

“The big thing is that flooding and floodwaters don’t stop at borders — they don’t recognize boundaries,” said Gurnee Mayor Kristina Kovarik.

“All of the work that has been going on for the last 20 years investing in our communities in flood mitigation could easily be wiped out.”

Kenosha County officials say they have been tracking the Foxconn project and are satisfied adequate protections are in place.

Aided by about $4 billion in state and local taxpayer incentives advanced by Gov. Scott Walker and the Republican-controlled Legislature, Foxconn has begun construction on what it says will ultimately be a manufacturing campus on 1,200 acres. A company executive said earlier this year he expects factory operations to start in the second half of 2019.

Wetlands loss and creation

As part of the financial incentive package to land Foxconn, Wisconsin officials also wrote legislation that exempted Foxconn from some environmental requirements. One requirement lets the company fill in wetlands regulated by the state. 

The loss requires the creation of new wetlands. Under state law, for every 1 acre lost, a developer must create 1.2 acres elsewhere. The special legislation for Foxconn requires greater mitigation — 2 acres for every 1 acre lost.

Foxconn is expected to destroy nearly 17 acres of wetlands and has paid $2 million to a DNR program to create wetlands elsewhere. About 13 acres of those wetlands are part of the Des Plaines River watershed. 

But Wisconsin requirements would not require that the wetlands loss in the Des Plaines River watershed be replaced in the same watershed. Instead, it could take place in a larger area that includes other river systems in southeastern Wisconsin.

“Even if the ratio is 2:1, yes, you get more wetlands,” said Warner, the Lake County stormwater official. “But if they are not replaced where you need them, it doesn’t give you the benefit that they had.”

Eric Ebersberger, the DNR’s project manager for the Foxconn project, said he will meet with Lake County officials and their consultants.

In an email, he said that "the DNR will try to mitigate within the Des Plaines watershed, but that depends on the quality of the … project proposals submitted to the department.”

Kovarik, Gurnee’s mayor, said Lake County needs assurances the Foxconn project won’t spur flooding. 

She would not dismiss legal action, saying “litigation is always an option, but it should be the last possible option.”