Mia Fischel, Asst. Features Editor—
Over the past few weeks, Denison students may have found themselves walking near geysers of steam that appear to be seeping from the ground.
Two years ago, the new steam plant next to the Mitchell Center replaced the steam plant in Granville, getting rid of several thousand feet of buried steam lines under the streets in town. Now, a majority of the heat on campus is generated from the plant.
Already this year, Denison has had around half a dozen pipe leaks. According to the Director of Physical Plant and Capital Projects, Jake Preston, in a normal year, it’s usual to expect about six to eight leaks to develop.
“There’s really no way to inspect the piping. It’s all direct buried piping, and the only way you know you have a problem is when it starts to leak up out of the ground,” Preston said.
A couple leaks around East Quad have already been fixed, and this past Tuesday, construction began near a problem area outside Huffman. Rainer Yaeger ‘24 lives in Shepardson and noticed the constant steam and construction on East Quad.
“The construction itself will wake me up a lot, and the steam sometimes will come out of nowhere, or the wind will change, and then suddenly I’m in unknown steam that’s coming through my face and, I’m like, I don’t know if this is okay to breathe,” Yaeger said.
It’s nearly impossible to predict where a leak might occur due to the pipes-within-a-pipe structure. Buried throughout campus, the piping system is made up of larger pipes with two pipes inside – one condensate and one steam – and a hole in the outer pipe results in a steam leak.
“The actual issue could be several 100 feet away, but it’s just traveling inside that pipe coming out in that location, but the actual issue is in another spot,” Preston said. “In the best case scenario, we dig these up and we fix them in a day. Sometimes you end up having to keep digging until you find the issue.”
Preston and the maintenance team have taken some necessary preventative measures and continuously inspect and update facilities.
“Over the years, we will proactively replace whole sections of steam. There’s a section in East Quad that’s getting old, so we will try to program and replace that holistically,” Preston said.
Despite efforts to quickly fix the piping, many students remain uninformed and slightly worried about the issue.
“They are fixing it, but maybe it would help if they provide more clarification of what it is because just leaving us guessing is concerning,” Yaeger said.
While Preston confirms it is not dangerous or toxic, he emphasizes that it’s still important to remain aware of steam leaks. The visible spray-painted areas on the ground indicate where other underground utilities are so workers will know what they are running into when digging, and often these areas are coned off or caution-taped.
“If we suspect there’s a safety issue, we will barricade it off, and you definitely want to respect those barriers that are set up around it,” Preston said. “Everybody should be cautious of that when you see that anywhere, not just at Denison, but if you’re downtown in a city and you see steam coming up out of the ground, it’s best to be around it with caution.”