After a day of experiencing hot water issues, housing management says University Columns (UC) has both hot and cold water restored. UC is an on-campus resident option at Northwestern State University of Louisiana.
UC sent out an email informing students of a burst pipe near building 4 of the apartment complex, stated the email. In addition to the hot water repair issues UC announced, some students said they noticed brown and yellow water running from their water sources last night.
“I found out because I was taking a shower at like 12:30 a.m., and I looked down — it’s yellow. I didn’t know what that was, I thought I was tripping, I thought I saw wrong,” Nicole Dela Cruz, a sophomore with a major in radiology, said.
Stephanie Dyjack, general manager of University Housing, explained that housing was not made aware of discolored water issues. “We did send out a community update this afternoon that when line repairs are complete, sediment may settle in the line,” she said.
Because housing did not receive notice of the discolored water, their emails only explained the boilers were shut down for repairs, according to the second housing email sent at 1:58 p.m.
“I was rinsing my hair and it came out yellow. It came out yellow,” Cruz said. “I had already finished taking a shower, but since I took a shower in that dirty yellow water, I had to rinse myself off with cold water — cold water and bottled water.”
Despite other complications, residents did have clear running cold water, as only a hot water pipe had burst. An email sent out to UC residents at 9:05 a.m. stated, “this has caused not only the water pressure but the temperature of the water to lower across the University Columns property.”
Ayla Cox, a freshman biology major, woke up at about 7 a.m. to take a shower when she noticed her toilet water was brown.
“I didn’t think much of it, and I take showers in the morning, so I turned it on and it wasn’t working. So I turned it to the side and it turned on, but it was freezing cold” said Cox. “I was not happy. I like my warm showers, so I just had to hurry but it was so cold and it’s already cold in our dorm, so I was freezing.”
Although inconvenienced, Cox was relieved to find it was a problem across the property.
Dyjack said UC residents’ water may contain sediments or be discolored, so she suggests letting the water run before using. Additionally, a housing email stated it may take a while before water reaches maximum temperatures because they shut down boilers for repair.
