CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) – There is an ongoing effort to clean up Little Sugar Creek in South Charlotte after a hydraulic oil spill Monday.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Storm Water Services said about 150 gallons of oil was spilled after a construction crew, tunneling into the road near Medical Center Drive, experienced an equipment malfunction.

It is estimated that 20 to 30 gallons of hydraulic leaked into Little Sugar Creek.

“You know, just as a local and the thought of my kids playing in that area all of the time, I was just concerned,” Myers Park resident Elizabeth Walsh said.

Walsh spotted the colorful oil covering the creek while on a run and captured it on video.

“I leaned over and started taking the video of a constant flowing of different shades of pinks, blues, and greens.  It was just not natural at all,” Walsh said.

“It’s not normal.  It is disgusting.  I thought too of Ohio, obviously, because that is what everyone knows,” Zach said after spotting the oil while running near the creek. “It looked just like the water in Ohio when people were sticking sticks in it and kind of swirling it around. Obviously not to the same extent, but I was concerned.”

A spokesperson with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Storm Water Services says nine booms have been installed into the creek to absorb the oil, which is the responsibility of the company that caused the spill to maintain.

Cleanup is expected to take several days.

Residents in the area say they wished the city or county had made an announcement when the spill initially happened.  

“It is really concerning, and I am even more concerned by the fact that the city didn’t proactively didn’t just tell people,” Zach said. “This could happen all of the time for all I know; it could be way more minor, it could be way more extreme, but I wish the city was more transparent about it.”