Coggan pool back in business with temporary fix after pipe theft

A temporary “fix” is in place restoring cold water service at La Jolla High School’s Coggan Family Aquatic complex which was forced to close from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday, Aug. 29 after thieves stole three backflow preventor pipes the previous evening.

“We have a temporary fix on it right now until we get all the proper valves to replumb,” said Randy Franke, the pool’s aquatics director, who added that will likely happen within the next month.

Franke said a way has been found rework the plumbing serving the pool. “We just bypassed where those valves normally are,” he said, “and we have a direct shot from the street to our facility.”

It is likely, when repairs are done later this month restoring the backflow preventor pipes, that the high school will put cages over them to make them harder to get at and therefore less attractive to opportunistic thieves.

It is believed the three pipes, which cost $750 a piece, were stolen because of the copper which they contain which is increasing in value. “The price of copper these days is just affecting the way things are operating,” said Franke. “These are expensive. You don’t really anticipate something like this happening.”