IN BRIEF

-- Andrew Glazer

COSTA MESA -- Niketown in Triangle Square reopened Wednesday morning

after a sewer leak forced it to close for two days.

Tom Estes, general manager of the Newport Boulevard shopping center, said

plumbers found a crack in the mall’s clay sewer pipe under 19th Street.

He said plumbers believe sewer water leaked from the crack through

Niketown’s basement walls. The plumbers will continue using cameras to

search for additional cracks, Estes said.

Niketown employees saw and smelled the leak Sunday evening. Mall and

Sanitary District plumbers spent two days searching for the source of the

sewer water.The manager of the athletic clothing superstore closed shop

Monday after the sewage smell became unbearable for employees.

Estes said Triangle Square cleaning crews flushed out most of the stench

from Niketown. He said only a faint sewage smell remains in the basement

shipping and receiving room.

A Niketown spokeswoman said Tuesday that the water did not damage any

merchandise.