Plumbing Accident filling San Diego’s Hole in the Wall with raw sewage
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The Hole in the Wall’s owners said sewer work the city did near their property has been faulty since 2015, pushing raw sewage into the bar, forcing closures.
Hidden off Lytton Street in Point Loma, The Hole in the Wall has been drawing big crowds for decades. It’s a San Diego staple, but a plumbing issue could soon plunge that status down the drain.
Karen Sherman, along with her son, owns and operates The Hole, as it’s known to regulars. A City of San Diego spokesperson confirms the city reworked and moved part of the main sewer line on the block as part of a capital improvement project. That came with new plumbing for the bar itself.
“In the process of doing that, it’s failed twice,” Sherman said. “Initially, the minute they put it in in 2015, and it had to be redone and it failed again seven years later in March of 2022.”
She explained the backup is “raw sewage backing up into [the] bar, so that people are stepping in raw sewage.”
Sherman says she’s filed three claims with the city about the work, once in 2015 and in 2022.
CBS 8 obtained a copy of the latest one.
According to the document, Sherman’s first claim asked for about $9,600 in lost revenue from extended construction from when the project was first done.
Then, she says it failed; the city asked for a plumber to survey the issue and confirm the problem. The city fixed the issue, but Sherman says they still rejected her claim.
In 2022, Sherman filed another claim, saying the system failed again. She says the city rejected that claim too. Sherman claims the bar is out close to $60,000, including $36,000 in emergency plumbing work they paid for to keep the bar operational.
“We did that to make it work, but to make it work completely we need to redo all the drains inside,” Sherman said. “[That] is what the city did with an independent contractor, and we’ve asked the city to come back and make good that work.”
CBS 8 reached out to the city’s communications department, Mayor Todd Gloria’s office, and Councilmember Jennifer Campbell’s office, which covers the area where The Hole is.
We did not hear back from the Gloria’s office.
Campbell’s office directed us to the City of San Diego Risk Management Department, the same one a city spokesperson said they would connect with to get us information.
The spokesperson said the city has no reports of “… warranty, latent and patents defects” on the project, and no one’s gotten in touch with public works regarding quote “…any sewer issue along Lytton Street or any lateral concerns for The Hole in the Wall bar…”
