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Road Reopens After Crews Clean Up Massive Cooking Oil Spill In Marin County

PETALUMA (CBS SF) -- Point Reyes-Petaluma Road in Marin County reopened around 10 p.m. after crews mopped up a waste cooking oil spill from Friday afternoon, a California Highway Patrol officer said.

The road was closed between Hicks Valley Road and San Antonio Road. It's a popular alternative to taking U.S. Highway 101 to and from Petaluma, CHP Officer Andrew Barclay said. The road becomes D Street in Petaluma.

Barclay said the driver of the truck, Glenn Kegerreis, 55, of San Rafael, who works for Dar-Pro Solutions of San Francisco, was coming from Point Reyes when he felt the weight of the oil in the trailer shift and move the truck, Barclay said.

The big-rig overturned onto the passenger side and Kegerreis crawled out of the truck and called for help, Barclay said. The spill happened in the 5900 block of Petaluma-Point Reyes Road near McEvoy Ranch, county spokesman Brent Ainsworth said.

The Novato Fire Protection District sent a haz-mat team consultant and the Marin County Fire Department and Petaluma Fire Department responded to the crash and spill, Ainsworth said.

Firefighters were building an earthen dam to stop the flow of waste oil on the pavement and the side of the road, Ainsworth said.

The truck was carrying an estimated 5,000 pounds of waste oil, Ainsworth said. It spilled 40-50 gallons of waste cooking oil and 3-5 gallons of hydraulic fluid from the cab of the truck.

The road had recently been paved and it absorbed the cooking oil, Barclay said.

The truck was upright late Friday afternoon and haz-mat teams were using absorbents and solvents and pressure washers to clean the road, Barclay said.

(Copyright 2013 by CBS San Francisco and Bay City News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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