A sewage drain leak in the Sadler Center Sunday morning caused temporary closure of the area around the Student Exchange in order to have cleanup crews take care of the mess and the unpleasant smell.
Two separate leaks occurred in the Sadler Center over the last two days, according to College of William and Mary spokesman Brian Whitson.
“There was a leak [Sunday] morning from a drain line in the kitchen area,” Whitson said. “That was repaired, but we had another leak on the same line [Monday] morning. That has also been repaired, and we are now working on cleaning up.”
The College brought in an outside cleaning contractor on Sunday to clean up the damage that the leak caused. The contracter will remain at the Sadler Center until Tuesday to remove wet materials and furniture and to increase ventilation to help eliminate the smell that has been present in the Sadler Center since the leak.
The smell alerted most students to the leak.
“The smell hit us, and everyone was saying that it smelled like a kennel,” Hannah Jeffers ’11 said.
A representative from the Admissions Office confirmed that tour groups avoided the basement of the Sadler Center so that prospective students would not encounter the unpleasant odor.
Due to the cleanup efforts, students cannot walk through the area between Quizno’s and the Student Exchange. The Student Exchange will remain closed and unavailable to students until the surrounding area is cleaned.
Some students were forced to alter their routes due to the odor and clean-up effort.
“The smell wasn’t that bad,” Irene Morrison-Moncure ’11 said. “I only smelled it when I was outside of the building. What was worse than the smell was the inconvenience of having to walk all the way around the outside of the building to get to the mailbox area.”
The College hopes the clean-up effort will be completed in the next couple of days.
“We are working hard to correct [the leak] as quickly as possible,” Whitson said. “We are hopeful that [the Sadler Center basement] will be open Wednesday.”
