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New School Dorm Told Not to Use Bathrooms After Water Main Break: Report

By Aidan Gardiner | April 27, 2016 12:21pm

MANHATTAN — Dorm residents were told to use bathrooms in nearby buildings after a water main break shut off running water in The New School's main building near Union Square, a report said.

The pipe ruptured about 9:30 a.m. at the school's University Center at 65 Fifth Ave., which also contains a dorm housing 617 students, according to officials and the New School Free Press.

Department of Environmental Protection officials ordered the school to shut water off at several buildings including the University Center, 66 Fifth Ave., 2 W.13th St. and 72 Fifth Ave., according to the Free Press and school officials.

Some nearby businesses closed because of the break, but it wasn't immediately clear how many other buildings in the area were affected.

Though classes in affected buildings weren't canceled, people were asked to use bathrooms in nearby school facilities that still had running water, the student-run news site reported.

DEP crews were still trying to find the exact source of the leak more than four hours later, said a spokesman who didn't provide further information. It wasn't immediately clear what caused the leak.

Traffic was closed along Fifth Avenue from 14th Street to 12th Street while 13th Street was closed from University to Sixth Avenue, said a spokesman for the Office of Emergency Management.

"To ensure the health and safety of our students, faculty and staff, we are complying with the order from the NYC DEP and hope to have water access restored as soon as possible," said New School spokesman Scott Gargan.

OEM was on scene with the FDNY and Department of Environmental Protection, the OEM spokesman said.

A pipe at the same intersection burst in 2014, cutting water to the same university buildings and flooding the University Center.

"There is no known connection between the water main break today and the one that happened in 2014," Gargan said.