A collapsed sewer pipe prompted all water to Bosler Hall to be turned off for several days. The water was turned off after flooding was discovered to be coming from the building’s main sewer pipe on Thursday, Jan. 23, with water restored on Tuesday, Jan 28.

In an email to the Dickinson College community on Jan 23., Vice President of Finance and Administration Bronté Burleigh-Jones explained that there had been a “sewer backup incident” in the basement of Bosler that morning. The backup was traced to a collapse of the main sewer pipe of the building. The email also announced that “all water service to the building will be shut-off,” the result being that all bathrooms and water fountains were unavailable.

In an email, Associate Vice President of Campus Operations Kristen Kostecky explained that Facilities Management was notified of the issue after receiving a call from the building “about a toilet overflowing in the basement restroom off of the computer lab.” Kostecky explained that water to the building was then shut off, and a camera was then fed into the sewer pipe to assess the situation. However, “due to debris in the pipe, we were not able to look very far into the line.” Kostecky continued that, over the previous weekend, an external contractor was called in to further assess the situation, and as of Monday, Jan. 27, Facilities was still working to clear the pipe. 

Later that day, Burleigh-Jones emailed the community, announcing that the college was “successful at making the necessary repairs to the sewer line at Bosler.” On Tuesday, Jan 28, Burleigh-Jones announced that water to the building would be restored that afternoon except to the basement bathroom which had initially flooded. “As a precautionary measure to prevent future sewer back-ups, the single use bathroom off of the basement computer lab will be indefinitely closed,” Jones explained, noting that the sewer pipe itself will be replaced over spring break. 

Kostecky explained that “pipes can collapse for a number of reasons such as age of the pipe, tree roots, voids within the earth which causes sagging,” and that no classes or professor offices were moved as a result of the water cutoff. Kostecky added that facilities provided water dispensers and hand sanitizer to the building throughout. 

Professors with offices in the building were understanding of the situation. Associate Professor of Russian Alyssa DeBlasio said “these are historic buildings, so this kind of stuff happens, and they provided us with water and hand sanitizer, so everyone’s doing the best they can.”

“It’s an old building, so I think it was expected” said Visiting International Scholar of Russian Iza Savenkova.

“I just taught, and I have chalk on my hands, so it’s a little inconvenient” said Associate Professor of Spanish Carolina Castellanos, “but we get to go outside to another building, so we aren’t in here all day.”

Other professors expressed their appreciation for Facilities Management. Elisa Valentini, Visitng International Scholar of Italian, said she appreciated the efficiency of the workers and how quickly they handled the situation. “I also appreciate that we are always up to date and the efficiency of the system,” she said. 

Students however were concerned about the pace of the repair. “It’s inhumane for there to be no water in an academic building for over a week” said Lucas Economou ‘23, “this problem should have been solved within days of occurring.”