NY, Illinois raise questions about Foxconn bid for Lake Michigan water
Scott Walker's 2018 re-election could hinge on his beloved Foxconn project breaking ground in rural Racine County.
And the Foxconn operation will depend on receiving a daily diversion of 7 million gallons of water every day from Lake Michigan.
But serious objections to the diversion's wisdom and legality under the Great Lakes Compact were raised by citizens at a public hearing earlier this month.
Additional objections across the Great Lakes region were mentioned in this non-partisan media report; I also wrote that some objections are amplified by Walker's damage to Wisconsin's environment and his debasement of the Department of Natural Resources - - the state agency which will review and can approve the Foxconn diversion application, all discussed here:
And the Foxconn operation will depend on receiving a daily diversion of 7 million gallons of water every day from Lake Michigan.
But serious objections to the diversion's wisdom and legality under the Great Lakes Compact were raised by citizens at a public hearing earlier this month.
Additional objections across the Great Lakes region were mentioned in this non-partisan media report; I also wrote that some objections are amplified by Walker's damage to Wisconsin's environment and his debasement of the Department of Natural Resources - - the state agency which will review and can approve the Foxconn diversion application, all discussed here:
...the heavily-resisted push for a Lake Michigan diversion for Foxconn adds to Wisconsin's status as a Great Lakes environmental outlier.Now we have additional reporting about those policy on today's Huffington Post website:
A letter from New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation quoted the compact’s requirement that water diverted to nearby communities largely serve residential customers.
“Here, it is unclear that the proposed diversion is largely for residential customers,” the letter said. “The water is intended to facilitate the construction and operation of the future industrial site.”
New York also questioned whether Wisconsin could unilaterally approve the deal, saying the compact’s general prohibition of new diversions “favors and potentially mandates” review by the other states bordering the lakes.
A letter from the Illinois Attorney General’s Office said the utilities involved in the project haven’t made clear how they would treat wastewater from the Foxconn plant before ultimately releasing it back into Lake Michigan. They argue that Racine should not be able to exceed the amounts defined in its current permit for returning wastewater to the lake.Here is a link to a complete archive of posts about the Foxconn project I've been compiled since July.
2 comments:
Just to give an approximation for the purposes of visualization: A gallon of water weighs 8.36 pounds and a typical semi-tanker can hold about 6000 gallons of water legal weight for transport. So after doing the math for 7 million gallons per day that would mean the equivalent of looking at over 1100 semi tankers of water. Of course they're not trucking it but it gives you an idea to visualize the magnitude. Every day. As an example if you went to park 1100 semi tankers end to end they would stretch for over 14 miles. Looked at another way if you jammed them all together with no space between them in the most compact parking area you would need a lot that is almost 4 miles by 4 miles or almost 16 square miles. Every day. Your typical large truck-stop parking lot would hold about 100 trucks. Some more some less but you get the idea.
I made a posting out or your comment. Thanks.
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