West Bloomfield Township roads where oily substance found reopened

Roadways in the Square Lake Road area of West Bloomfield Township have reopened after an oil spill Tuesday prompted officials to close them.

"The roads are now open for full use," West Bloomfield Township police officials said Wednesday in a post on the department's official Facebook page.

On Tuesday, police urged motorists to avoid the area of Square Lake Road between St. Joseph Street and Pine Ridge Road because of an oily substance found on the roadway. Police said they were investigating how the substance got onto the pavement and have closed the stretch of the road.

Officials received calls from residents at about 1 a.m. Tuesday about an oily substance on Square Lake between St. Joseph and Pine Ridge, they said. Police responded and found it was also on some of the side streets in the area.

Authorities said the substance was not harmful but it made the roadway too slick for traffic. Later Tuesday, officials for the Road Commission for Oakland County said they believed the substance to be cooking oil and it was illegally dumped.

Michigan's Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy was not taking the lead in the cleanup, Jill Greenberg, a spokeswoman for the agency, said Tuesday afternoon. She said a local hazmat team is handling it but the department was on site in a supporting role.

Greenberg said the hazmat team analyzed the substance and determined it was neither petroleum-based or a solvent.

She added the Road Commission for Oakland County is working to clean up the roadway and applied an absorbent material to soak up any remaining product and has crews sweeping the area. Furthermore, two booms were set —one in a nearby culvert and one in a small drainage ditch near Pine Lake. Greenberg said most of the substance was contained.

Anyone with information about who dumped the oily substance on the roadways should call the West Bloomfield Township Police at (248) 975-9200.

cramirez@detroitnews.com

X: @CharlesERamirez