Frac-outs are a result of the Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) process. When a pipeline company like Enbridge uses Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) to cross deep under a water body, they can experience what are called “frac-outs” – spills of the drilling fluid that escape from the drill path and come up to the surface in wetlands, streams or lakes. That drilling fluid contains water but also components like clay, salts, and a variety of other chemical compounds.

During permitting, Enbridge noted HDD was the safest way to cross high-quality water bodies. What they failed to make clear is that the industry commonly has frac-outs about 50% of the time. On the Line 3/93 project, Enbridge reported frac-outs at 67% of their HDD crossings and water protectors identified additional sites that might be un-reported frac-outs. The photo here shows a meter reading from Mississippi River in her headwaters near Itasca State Park. This suspected frac-out location, upwelling in the wetlands of Mississippi River, tested at three times the conductivity of the main river channel.

Frac-outs are more prevalent when insufficient geological investigation is done. During construction, state agencies initially dismissed reports of frac-outs made by on-site public observers. Enbridge’s self reporting on these disruptions was incomplete. The MPCA's report on the HDD failings gave no detail to agency confirmation of on-the-ground findings and, providing inconsistent notes regarding sizes of the spills, left citizens to wonder if the reporting was simply an Enbridge assessment of their own HDD failure sites. A remaining concern is the ongoing minimization of the damages from not only the applicant but regulators as well, who have continued to stonewall those of us seeking answers.

When Legislators wrote seeking answers from the agencies in 2021, they received little response, and were told to ask Enbridge for the information on drilling fluids that might remain in the land. While the agencies had promised to protect water quality by implementing stringent permitting requirements, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency failed to require Enbridge to report drilling fluid losses as a part of mandatory record-keeping. We know the records exist as this is a pay item for the pipeline builder. Yet where is the effort to extract this information from the responsible applicant? Waadookawaad Amikwag and Minnesota Legislators continue to await answers... more than two years later.