Cooking Oil Spill Causes Greasy Mess in Downtown Binghamton

Workers from a company that collects used cooking oil for recycling spent hours cleaning up what was described as a "malicious" spill in Binghamton.

The incident happened next to the city-owned State Street parking garage downtown.

Garth Charpentier, president of Clean Green Service of West Monroe, on Friday said he didn't know exactly when the spill occurred. He said it apparently had happened over the last day or so.

Charpentier told WNBF News it appeared that someone had drilled a hole near the bottom of the plastic storage container located in Commercial Alley, just south of Henry Street.

Charpentier said it was a "malicious" act that resulted in about 10 gallons of waste vegetable oil onto the pavement adjacent to the parking ramp.

Orange barricades from the city's public works department were set up around the spill to prevent people from walking or driving on the slippery surface.

Charpentier said some of the waste oil was collected from the area. He and a couple of workers then used water and a degreaser to clean up the mess.

Charpentier said the incident may have been a case of vandalism or could have been the work of a competitor.

Used cooking oil can be used to make biodiesel. There have been reports of cooking oil thefts in some parts of the country in recent years.

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Contact WNBF News reporter Bob Joseph: bob@wnbf.com. For breaking news and updates on developing stories, follow @BinghamtonNow on Twitter.