UPDATED: Residents, Water Safe After Gas Tanker Leak, Officials Say

A gas tanker leak Monday night in Oak Park that prompted the closure of the 11 Mile and Greenfield Roads intersection, as well as some evacuations in Berkley, has been contained and nearby residents are not in danger, officials said Tuesday.

The leak occurred at 5:30 p.m. Monday after a tanker driver traveling north on Greenfield tried to turn into the Marathon station on 11 Mile to make a delivery, Oak Park Public Safety Fire Marshall Shawn Tetler said Tuesday. The driver, who was trying to avoid leaving the tanker's back end on Greenfield as he made the turn, attempted to squeeze past a pump station where a customer was filling up and sheered off the tanker's bulkhead on a steel barrier rail on the opposite side, Tetler said.

"There is enough room if there is a car pumping gas," he said. "I think he was just being overly cautious and trying to stay away from that car."

An automatic shutoff valve on the tanker did not activate, which allowed the fuel to leak, Tetler said. The tanker was impounded so the malfunction can be investigated, according to the fire marshal, who declined to name the trucking company until its citations have been issued.

Rodney Johnson of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, which was on the scene Monday night, said approximately 2,000 gallons of fuel leaked from the tanker.

"It poured into the storm water system, not the sewer system that flows back to Detroit for treatment," said Johnson, who serves as the department's assistant director of public affairs.

He explained that the storm water and sewer systems are separate and the former does not involve drinking water.

Johnson said the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department checked the sewage system downstream from Oak Park and found no contaminants. He also said the Oak Park Public Safety Department flushed the affected lines using chemicals to encapsulate the fuel.

The storm water system is overseen by Oakland County, Johnson said.

"As far as Berkley is concerned, everything is safe," Berkley Public Safety Officer Justin Frost said Tuesday. "Everything drained to the south."

The and Public Safety Departments, under mutual aid agreements with Oak Park, and the Oakland County hazardous materials team assisted during the incident.

Frost, who is a member of the hazardous materials team, said air monitoring was conducted and "at no point in time did we ever receive any readings of the gasoline reaching Berkley."

However, Monday night as a precaution, he said.

Tetler, the Oak Park fire marshal, said the intersection reopened at 6:45 a.m. Tuesday and the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Environmental Quality are examining what mitigation will need to be done.

"There is soil contamination and could be residual fuel that comes up with the next rain," Tetler said.

Stay tuned to Berkley Patch for updates.