Milwaukeeans, really all Wisconsinites, love water: we’ve got two of the Greatest Lakes in our back pockets to prove it. Perhaps the only group who loves our freshwater resource more, is our soon-to-be-neighbor: Taiwanese electronics giant Foxconn.
In late January it was reported that Foxconn’s “$10 billion manufacturing center” is requesting to purchase 7 million gallons of fresh Lake Michigan water per day. The Mount Pleasant facility will be serviced by the Racine Water Utility, which put in the request to the Wisconsin DNR. The DNR needs to provide approval based on an interstate/province agreement on Great Lake water usage.
Loyal readers may recall that last year Waukesha received the first ever approval for diverting Great Lake water beyond the borders of the lake watershed. Plans are for them to receive some 8 million gallons daily – but that’s for a whole metro area.
Foxconn’s request will require a less stringent review considering Mount Pleasant is within basin borders, but deserves a second look due to a) the requested volume, and b) the expected amount that will not to be returned to Lake Michigan after use. Through their processing and evaporation, Foxconn estimates they’ll consume without replenishment around 2.7 million gallons per day. You can bet that’s an under-estimation.
While Foxconn will be getting their water from Racine (and Waukesha will get theirs from Oak Creek), taking a look at the largest purchasers of water from the Milwaukee Water Works (outside of the City of Milwaukee) helps paint a picture:
Top 10 Milwaukee Water Works customers by usage for 2016. Information provided by City of Milwaukee, Department of Public Works.
Here’s my takeaways:
- Foxconn’s 7 million gallons a day would put it as the largest water purchase in Milwaukee, ahead of every city, town, and village in the area.
- The only other private business in the top 10 water users is Miller Brewing Company. Miller uses nearly 75% less per day than what Foxconn is requesting, even though Miller’s products are literally made of water (no jokes, please).
- If you compare just the 2.7 million gallons that would not be replenished to this list, it would put Foxconn as the 5th-largest user in Milwaukee.
In all reality Lake Michigan has plenty of fresh water to meet the needs of Foxconn, Wisconsin, and all other states that border it from a sheer volume standpoint. In fact, the city of Racine has already been approved for removing 17 million gallons a day from the Lake; including the 7 million from Foxconn wouldn’t exceed their limit.
But that brings us to the two real problems:
- We have no idea of the condition of the 4.3 million gallons of water Foxconn will return to Lake Michigan each day. Foxconn has dealt with a wide array of environmental issues in Asia, and assurances of the cleanliness of their Wisconsin water output currently lacks any real detail. 4.3 million gallons of water is no good if it’s tainted with high levels of “zinc, cadmium, chromium, copper and benzene”. (As an aside, Miller’s Milwaukee brewery partners with The Alliance for Water Stewardship to manage their sustainable, clean water usage.)
- Racine and Foxconn are bypassing more stringent state and Great Lakes Region regulations through the use of questionable political tactics, no doubt supported (or even conceived of) by local and Madison politicians. By having Racine issue the request to the DNR for the water usage, which already falls under Racine’s aforementioned 17 million gallons a day, Foxconn’s usage can be considered part of a “public utility” usage. That’s a blatant lie in reality, but accurate via the paper trail, and it sets a dangerous public/private precedent.
Your opinions (nor mine) are of no good if you don’t make them heard. Brush up on the facts, formulate some ideas, and voice your thoughts to the people who can really make a difference. The WI DNR is hosting a public hearing on the City of Racine water diversion application (for Foxconn) on Wednesday, March 7; feel free to submit your comments via email or mail by March 21, 2018.
thanks for the thoughtful write-up. I’m trying to dig up the source on the water usage chart and have not found it. best
The water usage chart was provided to me by the City of Milwaukee, Department of Public Works, whom I emailed directly with. As far as I know it is not widely published information (though it is public).