La Jolla

La Jolla Cove is expected to reopen today after a sewage spill from a neighboring condominium complex had kept the beach off limits to the public since Thursday, a lifeguard supervisor with the Mission Bay Harbor Patrol said. However, the Children’s Pool beach near the cove will remain closed for a few more days after an overflow from a sewage pump station closed the small beach Thursday.

Michael O’Hare of the Harbor Patrol said a sewer line broke at a condominium complex at 1100 Ocean Boulevard, causing raw sewage to flow into the cove area.

“Everything runs downhill around here,” O’Hare said. “Whenever there is a sewage problem, it ends up in the street, then it eventually winds up in the ocean.”

“The water specimen looks good,” Donald Ramras, health officer at the County Department of Health Services, said of the cove area. “But if sewage is still flowing, the beach will remain closed.” A private plumber repaired the severed sewage line at the condominium complex, Ramras said, since the condominium had a private line.

Lifeguards in the La Jolla area also believe that a sewage pump station operating in the area backed up, releasing sewage into the water around the Children’s Pool beach. The small stretch of water will remain closed until health department officials can determine if sewage actually was released in the area, Ramras said.

The county was still investigating the spill Monday, Ramras said.