CITY AGAIN TRIES TO FIX SEWER LINE; MAKE REPAIRS OR PAY, WATER AGENCY ORDERS.

Byline: Sonia Giordani Daily News Staff Writer

With 14,400 gallons of sewage spilling into the Arroyo Conejo each day, work crews began encasing the leaking pipeline in concrete Wednesday.

The leak was discovered Monday in a seam between two pipes in the Arroyo Conejo, where the city made emergency repairs to the line in February after it ruptured during an intense winter storm. Workers have been trying to divert the untreated sewage away from the stream.

``We decided to encase the seam in concrete to make sure it stays that way and won't leak again,'' said City Attorney Mark Sellers. ``It could be a couple of months before we actually replace the pipe.''

Although the leak was detected Monday, city officials delayed action until Wednesday because they feared repairing the seam might rupture the entire pipeline.

The California Regional Water Quality Control Board issued a formal order Tuesday evening for the city to clean up the wastewater and fix the pipeline. City officials also were ordered to submit daily reports on progress to fix the leak. The city could be fined $5,000 per day if the order is violated.

The water agency also wants a final report about chemical analysis of samples of the creek water, how much sewage seeped into the creek and how the city cleaned up contaminated areas downstream.

City officials do not know how long raw sewage ran into the creek before workers discovered the leak Monday, said Dennis Dickerson, the regional water agency's executive officer.

Dickerson visited the site Tuesday. He said algae blooms indicated the stream had been contaminated for more than one day.

``While this one is a relatively small leak or spill, it still represents a substantial contribution of wastewater to the Arroyo Conejo and is certainly a violation of our regulatory requirements,'' he said. ``It is certainly a significant spill in the context of potentially altering the ecology of the stream, and we are focusing attention on that.''

The leak was detected only weeks before city officials are scheduled to appear before the regional board for a hearing on the spill of 86 million gallons of raw sewage into the Arroyo Conejo from Feb. 3 to Feb. 14.

The agency's staff already recommended the city pay a $2.11 million fine. On Aug. 3, the board will decide whether to follow the staff recommendation, reduce it or increase it - up to $858 million.

Dickerson said he could not predict how the new leak might affect the outcome of the hearing Aug. 3.

According to the order issued Tuesday, about sewage is leaking into the creek at about 10 gallons per minute.

``The interim repair of the pipeline appears to have failed, and raw sewage is now being released into the South Fork of Arroyo Conejo,'' the according to papers accompanying the order.

The pipeline had been scheduled for replacement in 1995-96 and again in 1996-97, according to the water agency.

``Had those repairs been made in a timely manner, this spill would likely have been avoided, since this spill appears to be directly related to the interim repairs made to the pipeline following the February release,'' agency documents say.