The move will please Apple fanboys because it means that their favourite company will make even bigger margins on their smartphones, but they have angered conservationists who say that nearly 2.7 million gallons of the water -- about 39 percent of the daily intake from the factory -- will be lost in the process, primarily from evaporation.

The massive diversion of water from the lake will be used to produce LCD screens at the company's planned $10 billion, 20 million square foot manufacturing plant set to be built in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin.

Wisconsin's DNR noted in a statement that the requested withdrawal would "only amount to a 0.07 percent increase in the total surface water withdrawals from Lake Michigan".

For environmentalists in the region, the issue is not so much the diversion for the Foxconn factory itself but rather the precedent it will set for how the lake water can be used.

Jennifer Giegerich, the government affairs director for the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters, warned that if the plant goes ahead, other plants will want to use the water in the same way. "Then it's going to be the thirsty states and nations to come", she warned during a public hearing about the diversion, according to the Wisconsin Gazette.

Not sure what this does for Apple's green credentials.