It appears the diesel spill into the North Thompson River on Saturday, north of Avola, was similar in size to last week’s diesel spill further south.

Mitch Pope, environmental emergency response officer with the Ministry of Environment, says the truck that crashed about 15 kilometers north of Avola Saturday spilled between 300 and 400 litres of fuel.

This spill comes after a transport truck crashed just south of Avola on Dec. 30 and spilled around 350 litres of diesel.

“We can’t really get an accurate estimation as to what went in the river, but there’s also still a bit of contamination at the spill site itself. So quite a bit of that 300-400 litres is likely soaked into the dirt on the shoulder of the road as well,” Pope says.

He adds crews will have a better idea how much of that actually went into the river after it finishes its assessment, which is going on right now.

“Crews are on site today to both do a proper assessment of the river to gain access to the river for sampling purposes, and to start remediating contaminated dirt along the side of the river at the crash site,” Pope says, adding a lane closure on the Yellowhead Highway will be in place north of Avola while work takes place.

Meanwhile, a water advisory for people in the Avola area, put in place by Interior Health on Saturday, could be lifted as soon as tomorrow depending on exactly when sample results of the river are ready.

Pope notes that the spill doesn’t directly affect people in Avola, as the community gets it water from Avola Creek and not the North Thompson River.

“From what I can gather, there may be a few residences along the river that they didn’t really know about, and in case somebody has a straw in there and is taking water from the river who they don’t know about, that’s kind of who they put this advisory out for,” he says.