Currier House Braves Sewage ‘Lake’

Currier House residents who battled their way home to the Quad during last Friday night’s snow expecting warmth and shelter instead faced the foul odor of a sewage leak.

On Friday afternoon, one of the House’s primary draining pumps shut down, causing a build-up of pressure that burst a sewage pipe in the House’s Lower Main hallway.

Since the hall links all resident towers to the dining hall and to the House’s main entrance, the sewage puddle cut residents of Daniels Tower off from their rooms, and forced Currier residents to head to other dining halls for dinner.

House Co-Master Joseph L. Badaracco said that he was informed at around 4 p.m. on Friday that the pipe had burst.

“There was this lake of disgusting sewage in the middle of Lower Main,” he said. “Even the drains were overflowing with the smelly water. We didn’t hesitate to immediately close the dining hall. I yelled across the lake of sewage to one of the Daniels Tower tutors to open up emergency exits so students could eat at other local houses.”

Residents of the House were stoic about Friday’s events.

“Aside from the atrocious odor, it wasn’t all bad. We just had to brave the elements and eat at other dining halls for one meal. The House staff took great strides to fix the problem fast,” said Daniel Z. Tanjeloff ’08

Co-Master Patricia O’Brien emphasized the speed with which the problem was addressed.

“It was quite impressive how fast the sewage was removed. The weather was horrible, and the plumber was stuck in Harvard Square for quite a while. Through all that, they did a great job of cleaning up Lower Main,” she said.

Badaracco added that the house was lucky the incident happened on a weekday before dining hours.

“The dining staff was determined to prevent further contamination of the dining hall. With the exception of a few feet of foul smelling water, they succeeded,” said Badaracco.

Director for Marketing and Communications for Harvard University Dining Services Christa Martin applauded the dining staff for their quick reaction.

Martin went on to say that the dining hall staff went to great lengths to clean all cutlery and dishes after the incident to ensure that there was no contamination from the water.

Main Hall was re-opened on Saturday morning, although fans remained in the area until Sunday.