Wellington County man raises concerns with large vegetable oil spill cleanup

Crews were back at work Friday cleaning up a large vegetable oil spill. CTV’s Jeff Pickel reports.

Crews had a messy situation on their hands when they returned to Wellington County on Friday to continue the cleanup of a vegetable oil mishap from earlier in the week.

Drivers were asked to steer clear of Woolwich Street East in Elora on Wednesday morning after a large container of vegetable oil fell off a truck. The slick substance spilled across the road, causing a temporary road closure.

A nearby property owner expressed his concerns about the initial response, alleging some of the oil was pushed into the ditches and a creek.

“There were thick layers of goopy oil,” Shane Lambert told CTV News. “[There was] a rancid smell, all pooling in the deep areas of the creek [and] on top of the water.”

Pictures taken by Lambert showed a viscous, bright yellow substance in the creek.

Lambert said he shared his concerns with the Ministry of the Environment, and crews were back at Woolwich Street East on Friday, putting up barriers to contain the oil and clean up what could be collected.

“There’s obviously a creek and a culvert that runs under the road,” he said. “They just completely disregarded it, washed it away – wash it off the road and then deal with it. It seems backwards.”

Lambert felt compelled to do something because the creek runs through his property, into Elora and eventually into the Grand River. He hoped, in the future, road crews would consider the potential environmental impacts when it comes to spills, not just traffic delays.

“The cleanup crew has been doing a fantastic job. However, it shouldn’t have occurred in the first place. It should have been cleaned up off of the pavement when it was easy. Absorbent materials could have mopped up most of it instead of doing what was fast and easy.”

CTV News reached out to the Township of Centre Wellington about the spill.

“Upon learning of the oil spill, Township Public Works staff acted immediately with support from the OPP to close Sideroad 15 to traffic,” a statement emailed to CTV News on Friday said, in part.

“Staff proceeded to address the safety risk by applying sand on the road to absorb the spilled oil and sweeping the road to remove the oil and sand from the road. Township staff also deployed spill containment measures in the creek to minimize the impact of the spill to the natural environment until a cleanup crew that specializes in environmental cleanups arrived on-site to clean up spill that had reached the creek,” the statement continued.

It is unclear how long the remedial cleanup of the surrounding area will take.