On October 21, Trinity students living on lower campus received several emails from Residential Life (ResLife) regarding hot water outages and water discoloration.

The first ResLife memo told residents that they “may experience some hot water issues or outages today.” A follow-up email informed residents that “Facilities Services just gave … word that hot water has been restored. Please allow some time for normal output and temperature to resume.”

Despite the notice that hot water had been restored throughout campus, some residents of Harold D. Herndon Residence Hall report continuing issues in regard to hot water access, especially with the showers.

“Half of the time I turn on the shower to let it acclimate to get our hot water. It’s just cold, it’s just very cold for twenty, thirty minutes. It’s so cold that sometimes you can’t even shower,” first-year and Herndon resident Elia Del Angel said.

“There’s been at least three different times where the shower does not heat up. It’s just cold water, straight cold water” Elia’s roommate first-year Lacey Miller said.

Later on Oct. 21, ResLife sent another email to lower campus residents, with a heads-up that “you may notice some discoloration of water out of your sink and shower or a foul smell as a result of the hot water outage that occurred earlier today. Please run your sink or shower for approximately 10 minutes to help resolve the issue.”

Many residents of the Robert R. Witt – Carlton R. Winn Residence Hall (Witt-Winn) noticed that something was amiss with their water on October 21.

“I turned my faucet on and it was super shotty. It would spew like a stream and then stop,” Katie Cusack, a first-year and Witt-Winn resident said. “The hot water was brown and black, and when you turned it off, you could see the residue in the sink.”

Other Witt-Winn residents reported similar experiences. “At first, when I woke up that morning, my hot water just didn’t turn on. And so when I came back to my room later that day after classes, I turned the nozzle and the water just kind of spurted out very aggressively and then it just started turning brown,” Aaliya Jones, first-year and Witt-Winn resident said. “Since then it’s been fine.”

Nearby, some residents of Miller also reported a few minor and since-resolved issues.

“So, we were pretty lucky, our room was relatively unaffected, but I know our suitemates’ sink kind of backed up. I don’t know if that was related. Some people reported hearing a squealing sound from the sinks. We did get the sound but we didn’t get any of that black gunk that happens when the pipes are broken,” Erin Pake, first-year and Miller resident, said.

Facilities Services was not available for comment by print time. Any additional information will be added to the digital version of this story as necessary.