The main water line feeding the city of Oberlin ruptured on Sunday, leaving the community with a potentially contaminated water supply. The town enacted a boiling advisory, but by the following afternoon, news of the water emergency had only begun to creep across campus.

In the early hours, warning signs were scarce on dorm entrances and water fountains, and advisory e-mail were only forwarded to select students. Many dorms did not receive supplies of bottled water until Monday night.

“With this instance, there may have been a bump in the road,” Vice President of College Relations Al Moran said.

Late Sunday morning, the Oberlin Water Treatment Facility alerted Safety and Security of the water emergency. But the Office of College Relations, which coordinates the College’s emergency efforts, didn’t get word of the situation until Monday.

Many students were alarmed to find out that water they had been drinking might have been contaminated.

“I had been drinking the water all Sunday,” one sophomore complained. “I didn’t find out until morning when I noticed a sign on the outside door.”

Academic buildings remained dry during the extent of the water advisory period.

Because the water disruption coincided with a weekend and a holiday communication did not flow as quickly as it might have during a regular workday.

“In retrospect, I wish it wouldn’t have been Easter Sunday,” ResLife director Kim LaFond said.

Oberlin’s water superintendent, Bill Wossilek, said there have been few water emergencies in recent years.

“Sometimes lines break, and that’s just what happened here,” Wossilek said.

College President Nancy Dye said that she did not know about the water situation until early Monday morning. “I went for my coffee, and my secretary told me, ‘It’s all right, I boiled the water,’” Dye recalled.

“The College was not well-prepared,” Dye said. “We usually get robust notification from the city but we didn’t get that this time.”

“We have protocol for emergencies that are very well articulated,” she added. “This was surprising.”

“I certainly think the whole event gives us a reason to review the communication process,” Moran added.

Water main breaks are not uncommon at Oberlin, and residents of South Campus residence halls were without clean water for days in one occasion. In previous cases, however, the College moved more quickly to publicize the news.

There is a place to post concerns about the campus’ safety and security in the On-Campus News section of Oberlin Online. Some feel that this space should be moved to a more conspicuous location on the home page. Others said that a mass e-mail notification system might improve communication during emergencies in the future.

College officials intend to examine the shortcomings of the current emergency system during an upcoming post mortem meeting.

“We need to talk with Security and Facilities to re-examine and re-evaluate these situations as they occur, and maybe give some items greater priority,” Moran said. “It’s a learning process for all of us.”