Lee Bergquist

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Under orders from Gov. Tony Evers, Department of Natural Resources officials have re-evaluated key environmental permits for Foxconn Technology Group and concluded the permits meet state and federal requirements.

The DNR examined five different company air permits, including Foxconn’s plans for a liquid crystal display manufacturing plant, that were approved by the agency under former Republican Gov. Scott Walker.

Also evaluated was a permit for stormwater at the Mount Pleasant industrial site.

During the campaign, Evers, a Democrat, said scientists told him they found flaws in the review process.

Evers himself raised questions about Foxconn’s environmental impact and said he would order the DNR to re-examine air permits.

“Clearly that’s one area the people of Wisconsin were concerned about, is air quality,” Evers told the Wisconsin State Journal after taking office.

The DNR issued air permits for the company in April 2018.

On Tuesday, Evers’ spokeswoman, Melissa Baldauff, said in a statement that it was a “matter of due diligence for him to ask that the Department of Natural Resources re-review previously issued permits to ensure they met that standard.

“Moving forward, we expect that additional permits will be required as Foxconn finalizes its plans, and those permits will be issued in accordance with the highest possible environmental protections.”

RELATED:Foxconn plans to sharply limit water use at its plant in Mount Pleasant

Foxconn, which has not yet applied for a wastewater permit, said in June it plans to build a $30 million "zero-liquid discharge system," which eliminates wastewater from manufacturing processes. The company has provided no further details on those plans.

After learning the results of the DNR review, a Foxconn spokeswoman on Tuesday provided a previous statement from the company saying it did not anticipate any changes to the environmental permits issued by the DNR.

Since first announcing its plans for Wisconsin, and standing to receive up to $3 billion in state subsidies, Taiwan-based Foxconn has scaled back plans and now says it will construct a smaller, less expensive plant to produce crystal display panels.

While the company in recent statements has not spoken of investing $10 billion in Mount Pleasant, as the firm did initially, it continues to say it will hire 13,000 employees. The great majority of the workforce will be “knowledge workers,” the company says, and not production workers.

RELATED:Wisconsin might not get a Foxconn plant of any size, analysts say

Kristin Hart, who oversaw the review of Foxconn’s air permits, said she directed department veterans who did not work on the Foxconn project to look at the permits.

Included: Calculations of probable air emissions, computer modeling that predicts emissions, a review of pollution controls Foxconn will be installing and whether all requirements in the permitting process were followed.

Hart estimated staff spent several hours each on their piece of the review.

“I was getting people to look at these different parts to see if we did it right,” Hart said.

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

Based on a review of state documents, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported in March 2018 that Foxconn’s emissions would rank among the highest in southeastern Wisconsin for pollutants that create smog, also known as ozone pollution.

Industry expert Bob O’Brien said Foxconn’s shift from a Generation 10.5 factory — the largest type of facility in the display industry — to a smaller plant essentially means Foxconn would be emitting less pollution.

Based on his analysis and information from his contacts in Asia, Foxconn would be producing half of the LCD units originally envisioned, using smaller glass panels, according to O’Brien, co-founder and president of Display Supply Chain Consultants of Ann Arbor, Michigan.

O’Brien is a former executive at Corning Inc., a major producer of glass for display panels.

“Pretty much everything with the plant would go proportional — the amount of water you would use, as well as the emissions,” he said.

If Foxconn builds a smaller manufacturing plant, Hart said, it is unclear whether the company would need to file for new air permits.

The only scientist the DNR is aware of who raised concerns outside of last year’s public comment period was David H. Petering, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

In an email, Petering said Foxconn’s emissions will be the source of harmful “health impacting pollutants” and that chemicals leaving the plant will persist for long periods in the atmosphere, representing a major new source of greenhouse gases.