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It's the second oldest building on our campus, and was constructed by people I can only assume were idiots. Its foundation was layed IN an underground spring, and as a result, the walls in the basement have a major water seapage problem.
This was worst in the Map Room (you think that they'd NOT store maps in the wettest room in building...), which had recently been converted to a paleo lab.
Because the floor of the lab was wet and actually freezing into ice (!), the university finally decided, ok, it's time to do something about that.
They tore out a hole in the floor, and tore back drywall in an attempt to install a sump pump.
Instead they found very bad mold (Staphobachi or something that sounds similar to that), and LOTS OF IT.
The mold, by the way, had been known about for three years and had been ignored by the university despite numerous requests for removal by the department....
Anyway, so they get the test results back and it's a total panic, and they make us clean out everything from the basement in less than a day and plan to quarenteen the entire basement. Seven people had their offices down there, and there were a lot of things that just can't be put "just anywhere" like rock saws!
So anyway, the plan is to seal off the basement in plastic and vaccuum out the spores, tear out the drywall etc and then re-test.
But the problem is, all the teaching collection specimens are still in basement because they were stored in the paleo lab/map room. I can't have access to them for possibly even six weeks! Not to mention the professor that actually NEEDS them for class......
Anyway, I may still be working in some other capacity, and hopefully they'll be able to solve the mold problem so I can at least get the specimens moved before six weeks from now, but hell, it could be the whole rest of the semester for all I know....
Not to mention during the safety meeting I learned that 1) the asbestos pipe insulation is never going to be replaced 2) chemicals actually precipitate out of the drywall (the building used to be the chemistry building) and 3) the foundation on the entire north end of the building is inundated with water and is esentially sand.
Plus there are no fire alarms or sprinklers!
And to think I would spend as many as 8 hours each day in the basement!
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