Students living in Denton and Elkton halls experienced a water outage in their dorms Monday because of a water main break in the Denton Community, officials said.
After workers at the Denton Community quad construction site discovered the break, they shut off water for the two dorms at about 11 a.m. so Facilities Management could dig into the quad for repairs, according to Operations and Maintenance Director Jack Baker. As of 1 p.m., the workers were excavating the area and attempting to repair the crack as soon as possible. Water returned to the dorms yesterday afternoon.
“The hope is that this isn’t a real inconvenience for students since they’re out and about with classes, and that the water will be back on before the students come back to the dorms,” Baker said at 1 p.m.
The cause of the malfunction is unknown, Baker said, though it most commonly occurs in cold weather as the ground freezes and thaws, causing shifting. The break could have been triggered by age or the current construction on the quad, a $3.65 million project set to be completed by Thanksgiving, he said.
“There’s really no way to know the cause of the pipe break,” Baker said. “We may not even know once we dig down and get to it.”
The Department of Resident Life did not provide another way to get water, but residents used the nearby North Campus Dining Hall, 251 North and the 24 Shop as resources. However, junior accounting major and Elkton Hall resident James Lowe said the department should have provided more guidance to residents.
“I would definitely say this is a large inconvenience; we can’t wash our hands or brush our teeth,” he said early yesterday afternoon. “We should have another place to go that has water.”
However, several students said they anticipated only a short-term inconvenience. In addition, Elkton Hall resident Andrew Hines said water resources on the campus are plentiful.
“It could be a lot worse, compared to a major power outage or a widespread water outage,” the junior electrical engineering major said.
