FLOOD OF FORMS MAY DELAY PIPE PROJECT.

Byline: Sonia Giordani Daily News Staff Writer

The city's $5 million plan to replace its aging sewer pipelines this summer may be delayed until June 1999 because its application is stuck in a backlog of requests for El Nino-related repairs.

City officials had hoped to secure state and federal permits by late May and to begin the work in Hill Canyon this June.

But regulatory officials - still processing piles of applications for emergency permits from the winter's heavy storms - said Thursday they do not expect to get to the city's application until at least June.

``The earliest we could get to that project would be mid-June - if all goes well,'' said Herb Nesmith, spokesman for the Los Angeles office of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

If the Army Corps or other agencies need more information or have doubts about the data provided, the permits may be delayed further, Nesmith said. In addition to the Army Corps, the state Department of Fish and Game and the Water Quality Control Board must approve the work.

City officials said even a few weeks' delay in receiving the permits could delay work until next summer.

``Mid-June works. Mid-July does not,'' said Don Nelson, public works director.

``The work requires a certain number of days to complete, and we were already planning on extended working hours and weekends to finish the project before the rainy season begins in November,'' he said.

The $5 million project will replace about 6,900 feet of the city's main sewer pipeline, which runs through the lower ridge of Hill Canyon, and about 1,000 feet of an adjacent line in the upper ridge.

City officials said they hoped to start work sooner to prevent additional disasters. On Feb. 3, heavy storms ruptured the city's main sewer line, causing more than 80 million gallons of untreated wastewater to spill into the Arroyo Conejo toward the ocean.

``We've been meeting with engineers and other representatives of the regulatory agency to convince them that this could be a health and safety issue,'' City Attorney Mark Sellers said.

The city also has enlisted the support of Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Woodland Hills, who urged the Army Corps last month to make the Thousand Oaks project a priority.