Vegetable oil spill shuts down Highway 290

HOUSTON Around 5:45pm, a driver for Synder Trucking carrying a load of vegetable oil realized a valve was open as he came up on the Mangum exit. That driver pulled over to the shoulder near 34th, but the spill had gone across all lanes of 290.

Houston police had to shut down all the inbound lanes on 290 at Mangum. TxDOT and the Houston Fire Department also came out to the scene to clean up the mess.

When TxDOT arrived and realized the spill was too big for them to handle, they called an environmental hazard crew amid concerns that cars would drive into the oil slick and start sliding, causing huge accidents.

Fortunately, the vegetable oil was detected before that ever happened, but it did take a while to clean up.

Just before midnight, all the inbound lanes at Magnum had been cleaned and the highway was reopened.

Synder Trucking will be billed for the cleanup.