On Oct. 22, Joscelyn Flores Sylva, first-year neuroscience major, found a problem with her plumbing system. After the toilet was flushed in her Harold D. Herndon Hall residence, it began to leak sewage water, covering the floor of her bathroom and room. After flooding began, Trinity University’s Facilities Services arrived to stop the leak, but Sylva said that it continued even after Facilities Services intervened.
“When the plumber showed up, he used the HVAC and sucked up all the water and stuff,” Flores Sylva said. “And even after we did all of that, it still filled the entire room.”
While the problem was mitigated by the following morning, Flores Sylva described the incident as “disgusting.” After maintenance resolved the immediate issue, the smell and damage from the flooding still lingered.
“It smells disgusting, so after that though, we cleaned it up,” said Flores Sylva. “We deep-cleaned the toilet, the bathroom. We had to replace a couple things.”
Associate director of facilities services, Ernesto Gonzalez, wrote in an email that the flooding was caused by a blockage in the pipe.
“The Herndon Hall plumbing infrastructure did not fail. There was an obstruction in the line that caused it to clog up. You would be surprised at some of the items that our technicians have pulled from clogged lines … The technician used a commercial auger to push the item loose and into the city’s larger sewer line,” Gonzalez wrote.
Gonzalez provided advice to students hoping to avoid similar events in the future. He emphasized the importance of not flushing items that could clog the pipes.
“The best way to prevent similar events from happening in the future is resident participation; not flushing items that shouldn’t be, flush more often so there isn’t a buildup of waste trying to be flushed all at once,” Gonzalez said. “I also encourage all of our community to report anything that doesn’t seem right immediately especially when there is a leak or a plumbing issue like this.”
Trinity’s plumbing problems have not been limited to Herndon. Rachel Bell, sophomore accounting major and Bruce Thomas Hall resident, faced a similar problem on Sept. 9. Throughout the semester, there had been a series of unfixable toilet clogs and leaks, that facilities services was in the process of finding a solution.
“[Maintenance] brought in a giant machine, and they put [it] … 100 feet … down our pipes because it was so clogged,” Bell said.
After facilities intervened, the issue of water leakage in Bell’s room was solved. However, Bell did voice frustration with the level of cleanliness throughout the process. After the process of declogging the pipe, Bell described the bathroom as being covered in sewage.
“[Maintenance] did their job, for sure. They did it successfully, but they could’ve been cleaner,” Bell said. “There was stuff on the walls, on the floor, and they didn’t clean it for us.”
Similar frustrations have been brought to SGA by students, who are working to find a solution to the plumbing problems. As an SGA senator, Pilar Mier, first-year political science major, has taken on the effort to implement a plumbing log in order to let students know where problems are and the progress on them. As a resident of Herndon Hall and roommate to Flores Sylva, Mier has firsthand knowledge of the Trinity plumbing problems.
“Since what happened to me was because of an exploded pipe in Herndon, SGA is trying to look into the plumbing logs that are kept or [see] if they are even kept,” Mier said. “They are trying to make it public, so that they’re able to know what’s being checked when, how and then how often it’s being checked. Just to make sure that everything is working as it should be and we don’t have situations like what’s happening in Herndon.”
