Students living in Verder Hall were told their water would shut off from 5 a.m. Friday to Saturday evening – and potentially longer – due to needed repairs to the building’s main sewage line. 

Early Friday morning, the water turned off but then was turned back on around 11 a.m. because work was completed quicker than expected, said Doug Pearson, associate vice president for Facilities Planning and Operations. 

“We started to have problems with the sewer line in Verder with frequent backups,” Pearson said. “Eventually, we started to excavate the sewer vein, which is in the crawlspace under the building, and discovered the old sewer vein was rotted out in sections.”

During that short shut-off time, Verder residents could use their keycards to access bathrooms in nearby Prentice Hall. 

Students were informed about the closure Sept. 14 in an email from their residence hall director to give them time to prepare. 

“We scheduled this time for today and tomorrow, not knowing for sure,” Pearson said. “We wanted to make sure we covered the time frame for replacing the sections.”

This issue is not unique to campus residence halls. Similar work was completed last summer in Manchester Hall.

“It occasionally happens with buildings this old, so I’m not surprised,” said Pearson. 

Verder residents can expect closures in individual bathrooms in the coming weeks as staff connect new sewer risers into the vein. Pearson said there should not be any issues in the bathrooms like off-putting smells. 

“[That process] should be fairly transparent,” Pearson said.“They’ll go talk to the individual students whose water is going to be turned off for an hour or two, then it’ll be turned back on.”

Andrew Bowie is a reporter. Contact him at [email protected].