There’s a small sinkhole at Point Defiance. The walruses should be back Saturday.

Waterline breaks at Point Defiance briefly affected the zoo’s walrus exhibit Friday, caused a small sinkhole at the Tacoma park, and may affect water quality in part of the city’s north end.

Metro Parks Tacoma spokesman Michael Thompson told The News Tribune that staff at Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium noticed the problem about 8:30 a.m. Friday, and had the water shut down in about 20 minutes.

Some debris from one of the waterline breaks got into the walrus exhibit, he said, and staff quickly emptied and cleaned the exhibit.

Walruses Joan, Basilla and Kulusiq are fine, officials said, and were expected to be back on exhibit by the time the zoo opened Saturday.

Meanwhile, traffic was routed around the sinkhole that appeared along the one-way road into the park, near a picnic area behind the zoo’s new aquarium.

Concrete slabs caved into the hole, which appeared to measure about four-by-six feet.

“I’m not aware of any others that are in the park right now,” Thompson said of the hole “They’re going to be checking for that, of course.”

Crews were going to put steel plates over the road, he said, and expected repairs to start Monday.

Everything in the park remained open.

Thompson said it appeared there had been a few waterline breaks near and in the zoo.

Metro Parks does not know what caused them, and has questions into Tacoma Public Utilities, he said.

Thompson said a few buildings and areas of the zoo were without water for a couple hours, until water was rerouted. It was mostly irrigation that was affected, he said.

Apparently the area around the park also might be affected.

The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department posted on its website that a large water main break in a private water system at Point Defiance Park could affect an area with 50 food service establishments, north of North 35th Street and west of North Verde Street.

“The break caused large flow increases and reversals throughout the north end of the Tacoma Water system,” the statement said. “Customers report the break caused water quality issues — dirty water.”

The agency said food service establishments should stop washing dishes and produce until water is clear, and turn off equipment that uses water, such as ice and soda machines.

Once the break is fixed, customers should run water for 5 to 10 minutes until it is clear, drain and refill the dishwasher, flush lines that carry water (such as in espresso machines), and throw out ice. The next batch of ice should also be tossed, the health department said.

This story was originally published January 4, 2019 at 1:49 PM.