No Water Wednesday: Park Street Water Line Causes Campus Wide Outage

 On Wednesday evening, students and faculty across St. Lawrence University dealt with a lack of one of life’s most essential services: water. 

At 5:58 p.m. on Wednesday, students and faculty received a SLU Alert notification. The alert said the “Village of Canton is working on the water main on Park Street. As repairs are facilitated, we may encounter drops in pressure and water flow on campus.” 

Throughout the week, Canton facilities had been working on the water line along Park Street near the University Ave. and Elm St. intersections. University Ave. had been briefly closed off to through-traffic. On Wednesday evening, several large trucks and other vehicles were spotted working in the same location. 

Soon after Safety and Security sent out the alert, water pressure and flow quickly depleted across campus. Water trickled out of sinks and showers. Toilets stopped flushing. Water stations stopped dispensing water. 

Several SLU sports teams were wrapping up practice when the announcement was sent out. Adrianna Cecchetelli ’26 of the cross-country team says the team were able to clean off in the showers after practice by using the last trickle of its locker room showers. According to Kalina Natcheva ’27, members of the volleyball team used water bottles and the remaining flow of the sinks to wash their hair. Members of the team also said they witnessed several members of the football team jumping into the Frank and Lee Augsbury Pool to clean off. 

Students in residence halls and academic buildings also went without running water. In the Sullivan Student Center, there were no working toilets during the rush of students eating dinner at the Northstar Café. Students fled to social media to air out their grievances with the lack of water. 

The university was quick to take action. At 8:08 p.m., another SLU Alert went out, advising the SLU community, “Do NOT drink the water when service is restored. There will be a boil alert in place.” Soon after, members of facilities put up several water stations in Dana Dining Center, the Student Center, and each residence hall. These stations had clean water for students to drink. They were advised to bring their own cups or bottles to “take only what [they] need,” according to a third alert at 9:02 p.m. Portable restrooms were also placed at several locations around campus. 

As of the writing of this article on Thursday morning, there is a boil alert in place. In a campus-wide email, Vice President of Student Life Jon Duraj said “all water used for drinking, brushing teeth, washing produce, or making food and ice must first be brought to a full rolling boil for one minute and cooled. It is OK to use the toilets. If showering, avoid drinking the water.” He advised students to take only what they need to conserve supplies. He continued, “Students in the townhouses, theme houses and fraternity and sorority houses with access to kitchens should boil water for their usage needs.”