The water quality levels at Chambers Creek Regional Park in University Place tested normal and an advisory cautioning people to stay out of the water was lifted Jan. 27 by the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department following an incident last week at the Chambers Creek Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant.

On Jan. 22, a brief mechanical failure caused approximately 200,000 gallons of partially disinfected wastewater to be discharged into Puget Sound. The effluent was fully treated, although a portion did not receive UV exposure during the disinfection stage due to a temporary system outage that lasted about 30 minutes.

Pierce County Public Works and Utilities took samples and determined the plant did not exceed its discharge limits, and was not in violation of its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit.

As a precaution, swimmers, waders, and boaters were advised to avoid contact with the water at the park’s public beach, located off of Grandview Avenue, while the Health Department conducted independent testing to verify that bacteria levels in the water were normal.