Saturday, 22 August 2026

Drilling fluid has escaped again during construction of Enbridge's Line 5 reroute, this time at Trout Brook in Marengo, Wisconsin, according to CleanTechnica.

The outlet described the release as another frac-out on the reroute project. A frac-out occurs when pressurized drilling fluid breaks through to the surface during horizontal directional drilling rather than staying inside the bore.

CleanTechnica reported that the Trout Brook incident follows a 1,900 gallon drilling fluid spill earlier this summer on the same reroute construction. The two releases place repeated loss of containment on the record for a single pipeline project still under construction.

The reroute is the segment of Line 5 Enbridge is building to move the pipeline, and the drilling method behind both incidents is the standard technique for crossing waterways without trenching them. Each frac-out reported at a stream crossing adds to the operational record regulators weigh when assessing the remaining crossings on the route.