A smell resembling raw sewage has been wafting through the lobby of Lawrence Hall throughout the first weeks of the fall semester, according to students and faculty.
“Sewage… smells like sewage,” Brian Preston, a clerk at the Mailroom in Lawrence’s lobby, said. “It’s terrible.”
According to Preston, the Mailroom’s receiving room is often bombarded with the stench every morning.
“I think it smells awkwardly moist and also somewhat like eggs,” First-year student Frank Aldridge said, “I remember one day passing outside of Lawrence Hall too. I smelled it just very heavily.”
According to the Physical Plant’s Vice President of Operations, Chris Hill, he said the stench could be sourced to a ventilation grate outside the doors to the lobby on Wood St.
“Usually once a year the city will clean out their pipes using a foam substance that they put through the pipes,” Hill said. “The problem is when they do that, if you notice on the sidewalks you’ll see what looks like a vent, that’s where the smell comes through.
According to Hill, the stench of the cleaner drifts up and out of the sidewalk ventilation outside of Lawrence’s right entrance. Hill said it then wafts into the lobby when the entrance doors are open.
While there are no grates or ventilation on the sidewalk, there is a sewer grate on the street in front of Lawrence’s Wood St. entrance.
Hill said that hot weather also made the stench linger much longer. “On a 95-degree day with high humidity and the doors being opened, it was a perfect storm,” he said.
Point Park’s move-in began on Aug. 17 and concluded on Aug. 24. According to AccuWeather, Pittsburgh’s temperature the week of move-in peaked at 88 degrees Fahrenheit on Aug. 24.
As of publishing and according to AccuWeather, the highest recorded temperature in the past two weeks was 95 degrees on Aug. 27.
Humidity peaked at 93% on Aug 30, according to CustomWeather.
According to the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority (PWSA), no chemicals are used in the cleaning of the city’s drain system.
In a statement to The Globe a PWSA representative said, “Instead [of chemicals], our sewer team uses high-pressure jetting and mechanical methods to flush water into sewer pipes and brush away debris.”
They also said that an odor, “sometimes occurs during periods of heavy rains when stormwater enters the combined sewer system.”
According to the PWSA’s website, sewage and stormwater flow through the same pipes across roughly 75% of the city.
When periods of heavy rainfall occur, water levels within the combined sewer system rise, sometimes causing sewage overflow. This overflow can result in odor.
“As the rain passes through and the capacity within the sewer system returns to normal, the odor will subside,” the representative said.
Pittsburgh experienced heavy rainfall between Aug. 16 and 18, and more recently, between Aug. 30 and 31, as well as Sept. 6, according to the Weather Channel.
While it is still unclear the exact cause of the smell, Hill said that Physical Plant is taking measures to eliminate the stench as soon as possible.
“We’re actually putting a deodorizer into the HVAC system,” Hill said.
The deodorizer will be a permanent addition, according to Hill, and should mitigate any lingering scents that follow visitors of Lawrence Hall into the lobby.
Physical Plant said that it encourages students to submit work orders for any maintenance issues found around campus.
Work orders can be submitted online at pointpark.corrigo.com with a valid login, or by calling (412) 392-3960 in the event of an emergency.
