SVC floods for fourth time, not an isolated problem

The clean-up crew responded to a fourth flooding incident in the SVC basement.
ORACLE PHOTO/MIKI SHINE

The toilets in the basement of SVC once again experienced pipe blockage Friday morning, which caused the area directly outside to flood.

This is the fourth time the SVC bathrooms have flooded and been closed down this semester. According to Assistant Director of Cmmunications Aaron Nichols, flooding is not specific to SVC but has been occurring in other locations across campus.

The first incident was at the end of September and originated from the first floor men’s bathroom. The last three incidents have originated from the basement restrooms over a seven-day period. Assistant Director of Communications Aaron Nichols said that all three have been caused by “non-biodegradable paper towels and other materials” in old pipes.

Nichols said that after the incident on Tuesday, the pipes were cleaned using an auger tool but that some of the build up that’s expected with age may have not been completely removed, which contributed to the most recent spill.

After the incident Tuesday morning, the bathrooms inside of SVC were all closed — those on the breezeway outside remained open — and reopened at the end of the business day Thursday, according to Nichols.

The spill most recent spill occurred before 11 Friday morning.

Signs outside of the restrooms currently say that the inside bathrooms are closed while those on the first and second floor of the breezeway will remain open. There’s no estimated time for their reopening.

Nichols said on Tuesday that this is not uncommon in older buildings and that there have been “similar occurrences at other campus areas." In response, he said, Facilities Management is “evaluating the utilization of signage to educate the campus community regarding the impacts of flushing non-biodegradable materials into the wastewater system.”

On Friday, he specified that there was flooding in Cooper Hall last week.