Evening traffic was diverted from S.E. 24th Street for several hours last Monday after an oily substance was spilled onto the roadway.

The spilled substance was not immediately known, but a street sweeper and maintenance crews dumped absorbents onto the road to help prevent it from getting into storm drains. City officials believe that the spill originated from an Islander’s garbage receptacle. It was raining at the time of the spill, and the next day a track of dirt could be seen all the way down the hill.

According to Maintenance Director Glenn Boettcher, the city was working with Allied Waste, the Island’s contracted garbage company, to determine which home caused the spill. A city street sweeper and sand were used to clean up the mess while the MIPD made sure that the road was not too slick for traffic. The fire department also applied some absorbent materials to make sure that the oil did not get into storm drains. Maintenance crew members responded to the spill around 3 p.m. on Monday and stayed on site until the evening. The crew repeatedly applied absorbent material and swept up what it could.

Allied Waste responded promptly to take charge of the clean-up and hired a private firm to do a final cleaning on Tuesday. Boettcher also said that the spill was contained and did not reach the storm drainage system or Lake Washington, but it did affect two sections of 24th, from 60th to West Mercer and from West Mercer to 74th.