Friday, July 27, 2018

4th IL agency concerned with flooding opposes Foxconn environmental waivers

Just as you won't see Walker touting the $117 million for a Foxconn electrical service line being additionally billed to Wisconsinites already on the hook for billions in subsidies, I don't look for him to take seriously growing concerns in downstream Illinois communities about potential site runoff flooding because the deal for Foxconn waives basic wetland reviews and protections.

For the record, Racine County has flooding issues:
Racine County is one of seven counties in the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, (SEWRPC), and it said in a lengthy 2015 report that flooding was a major hazard in Racine County (beginning in p. 86):
Flooding is a significant hazard in Racine County.
So I'll add that information to my Foxconn archive and post the item, here
Mundelein trustees have joined the Lake County Board, Lincolnshire and Gurnee in opposing Wisconsin's plan to waive environmental restrictions for a Foxconn manufacturing plant being built just north of the Illinois border. 
The village board this week approved a resolution urging Wisconsin to enforce applicable environmental regulations on the project...
Perhaps most significantly for Illinois, the company is being allowed to fill 26 acres of wetlands without first conducting an environmental impact study. Those wetlands flow into the Des Plaines River watershed.
Gurnee and Lincolnshire are among the Lake County communities that experience floods from the Des Plaines River following heavy rains and snow melts. Filling in those wetlands without replacing them nearby could increase flooding, officials have said.
Separately, the Illinois Attorney General is suing over the project's exemption for strong air quality enforcement. 

Farmland like this now being bulldozed for the Foxconn project, like wetlands on the site ticked for filling, absorb rainfall and mitigate flooding.

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