President Trump in Wisconsin to celebrate Foxconn today
President Donald Trump is in Wisconsin and plans to officiate at today's groundbreaking for the controversial Foxconn Technology Group project in Racine County, just north of the Illinois border.
Foxconn, the world's biggest contract manufacturer of smartphones, computers and other technology products, has created controversy for several Lake County towns.
The proposed $10 billion plant will be the company's first in the United States. It is expected to have 13,000 employees making liquid crystal display panels for computers, TVs and self-driving cars.
The Foxconn site is in Mount Pleasant, about 20 miles north of the Illinois border. The company was spared from some federal and state environmental requirements as part of a $3 billion incentive package promised by Wisconsin legislators last year.
For example, Foxconn 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.
Lincolnshire and Gurnee are among the Illinois towns that experience floods from the river following heavy rains and snow melts. Filling in those wetlands without replacing them nearby could increase flooding, officials have said.
Critics also say the factory's emissions could hurt air quality. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has pledged to challenge the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ruling allowing those emissions.