Students live with sewage smell in Coyote Village

When sophomore Elizabeth Oden and her roommate sophomore Sam Heard entered their Coyote Village apartment three weeks ago, they noticed a not-so-pleasant smell.

“I walked into the room and the smell of sewage just hit me,” Oden said.  “It filled the whole room, and we weren’t sure why.”

The smell, while it lasted for just two weeks, had its effects on Oden and Heard.

“When you walked in the room it smelled bad, but after like two minutes you got used to it,” Oden said. “We didn’t like having people over with it — we didn’t want people thinking we are slobs or anything.”

Todd Tucker, USD interim director of housing, said this issue is something the university is aware of.

“We do actually hear about those pretty frequently,” Tucker said. “With the building and because every suite and apartment has their own individual heating and cooling units in it, sometimes those need to be released and have water put down the drain so that sewer smell doesn’t come up.”

USD Facilities Management did not respond to The Volante after multiple phone calls and emails for more specifics behind the sewer smell.

Oden later realized she could run all the water in the room for approximately two minutes, and that helped subside the problem.

Tucker said the problem can be temporarily resolved.

“Anytime we hear about it we can get it resolved in that same day as long as students are letting us know that it’s happening,” Tucker said. “Our facilities folks can go in that area in their apartment and run some water and it’ll go away.”

Oden and Heard aren’t alone, however.

Erica Erickson lives on the third floor of Coyote Village and said she, too, has been experiencing the smell of sewage in her room on and off for the entire year.

“It started about a month after I moved in, when it started to cool down. It was especially bad over Christmas break,” she said. “It was absolutely horrible.”

Erickson said the smell has been less of an issue as-of-late, but was frequent from November 2013 to February.

Just like Oden and her roommate, Erickson said the smell was not strong enough to cause a problem, and did not report the issue to housing.

“I figured it would go away eventually. I didn’t feel the need to let anyone know because it only lasted a couple days,” she said. “If it would have lasted longer, I would have told the front desk.”

The issue has been much more severe for residents living below Erickson, she said.

“My best friend lives (on the first floor) and she had to report it because the smell lasted for more than a week,” she said.

While neither made any official reports to the university, Oden and her roommate were told the issue was solvable by facility workers.

The smell, among other issues, has played a serious role in choosing where to live in 2014-15 for Erickson.

“I don’t want to live in a place that smells like sewer,” she said.

Instead, she hopes to live in McFadden by the time the fall semester rolls around.

“If there is something that can be done to fix it, why are they not doing it?” Erickson said. “They really need to take a look at the way Coyote Village functions. Something is obviously going wrong.”

Tucker said the sewer smell is concerning to him and to the university, however, he isn’t certain if there is a long-term fix.

“I don’t know if that’s something that happens in all the apartments and if it happens frequently,” Tucker said. “We do track those things when we do come up, so we know about them and we can work with facilities management if it’s in an area that continues to happen and that we do something about it.”

In addition, Tucker encourages any and all feedback regarding problems and issues with student housing.

“There is nothing wrong with complaining or letting their CA know and talking about the issues that are happening. We can fix it, or if there isn’t a fix we can let them know this is what they need to do so we can get it taken care of for you,” he said.