Drilling fluid spilled into a forested wetland in Iron County on Saturday, June 27, 2026. Photo courtesy of Earthjustice via the Bad River tribe (via WPR).
IRON COUNTY, WI — On June 23rd, Bad River elder Joe Bates witnessed a pool of brown slurry around one of Enbridge’s Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) site on the Vaughn Creek through his drone. Bates and other community members have been monitoring Enbridge’s Line 5 reroute construction for several months, as Enbridge has a history of releasing hazardous fluids into the watershed during its construction projects.
Enbridge claims that a drilling fluid spill had occurred four days later at 4:30 pm. It is estimated by the DNR that up to 1,900 gallons of drilling fluid and bentonite clay flooded the impacted wetland. Another 8 gallons of clay spilled into Vaughn Creek. Despite this direct violation of the waterway and wetland permit issued by the DNR, no stay on construction has been issued as of June 30th. This is the fourth notice of noncompliance the DNR has issued Enbridge since construction started in March.
The exact composition of the drilling fluid used by Enbridge is unknown. Although the DNR has a list of approved materials for HDD, several of these materials contain “proprietary ingredients” which are not disclosed to the public.
Full reporting from WPR can be found here