Outside of the Olmsted Center, the sidewalk has been propelling piping hot water with an audible gurgling sound and puffs of steam. The steam is not hazardous to breathe in, but this hasn’t stopped students from voicing their concerns on YikYak and other social media platforms.
“We have some kind of a failure in the piping there that could be many different things, from a bad weld joint to just some electrolysis occurring that has caused the pipe to erode or corrode away and end up causing a leak,” Dennis Belieu, HVAC Utility Manager, said.
The bubbling outside the Olmsted Center is coming from an underground leak in one of the steam vaults on campus, the vault that services Hubbell Dining Hall. The leak sprouted in the last couple of months, originally presenting itself as steam, said Belieu.
“You’ll notice from time to time around campus, you’ll see some steam coming up out of the ground vaults, where there’s manholes, these steel lids at the concrete areas,” Belieu said. “These are steam vaults, we call them, and the steam and condensate piping passes through those and branches off and goes into buildings.”
The leak hasn’t been fixed yet for a variety of reasons. These include time and budget constraints, as well as the need to cut off hot water from a few buildings to safely fix the leak. The steam vaults and pipes provide heating and cooling to campus, including heating and cooling water.
“We’re trying not to disrupt the functions at any of the buildings, but especially the Hubbell Dining [Hall], which provides all the food access for the students and faculty and workers around here,” Belieu said. “When we impact them, part of it is they have some use for steam to do some cooking, but it kills the dishwasher, the automatic dishwashing machine. They cannot sanitize without that steam pressure.”
Kevin Moran, executive director of Facilities, Planning and Management, said that his department is discussing temporarily shutting down steam to campus so that a valve outside of Hubbell can be safely exercised in a manhole to ensure that it would hold while facilities repairs the steam leak outside of Olmsted Center.
“[The] exact schedule is still being worked out and will be communicated to the students, staff and faculty once finalized,” Moran said in an email interview. “Students who remain on campus during fall break will be given information on where alternate showers locations will be for their use during this period.”
Steam erupting from the sidewalk near the Bell Center or water flowing near Old Main are also caused by leaks. Belieu said that the facilities team replaced the pipe near Old Main.
While the steam is not dangerous, being mostly water with a few chemical treatments, it is around 200 degrees at the leak point, so Belieu did not want people to walk near it. That prompted the orange cone and, later, the gate, said Belieu.
Drake has numerous pipes underground, including chiller water lines, steam and condensate lines and domestic water lines.
“Occasionally a pipe develops a leak, and depending on the extent of the integrity of the pipe, a small repair will suffice versus a full pipe replacement,” Moran said in an email interview. “Costs and disruption to the campus are factored in when a decision is made on how to address a leak.”
Jack Harrington, Facilities and Technology Student Senator-at-Large, informs students about custodial, utility services and maintenance issues on campus.
“One of my initiatives is going to be [being] more transparent with all Drake students,” Harrington said. “I think we’re going to start some sort of email process and a few other things to let students know more about what’s going on with something like [this leak].”
Harrington added that there will be more communication regarding facilities-related events in the coming weeks and months.
