Sewerage creates domino effect; Rutland, Holden gain via city funds.

Byline: Jean Laquidara Hill

HOLDEN - Weeks before Department of Public Works Director Lawrence H. Galkowski asked selectmen to seek support from state Rep. Lewis G. Evangelidis for funding that ultimately could lead to increased use of the Rutland-Holden Trunk Sewer, the Holden Republican and other legislators had sought help from a string of officials.

Holden's discharge into the Rutland-Holden Trunk Sewer is nearing capacity. And rapidly growing Rutland is discharging more waste into the trunk sewer than it is allotted by Worcester and the state Department of Conservation and Recreation.

"The idea is that we have to establish larger capacities so our communities don't run up against a wall with development. But how we establish that is the issue right now," Mr. Evangelidis said yesterday. "We can't have communities held hostage to sewer fees and capacities."

The discharge flows into the Worcester sewer system on its way to the Upper Blackstone Waste Pollution Abatement District wastewater treatment plant.

Writing on behalf of Holden and Rutland, state officials asked elected and appointed authorities to provide the funding to expedite three improvements to the Worcester sewer system, after which capacity limits for municipalities are expected to increase.

"We're asking for $5 million," Mr. Evangelidis said yesterday, referring to recent efforts on behalf of Rutland, Holden and West Boylston. He said the $5 million is needed to complete three sewer projects in Worcester, at Cambridge Street, Newton Square, and from Pleasant Street to Park Avenue.

In a July 24 letter to Robert A. DeLeo, chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means, Mr. Evangelidis, state Rep. James J. O'Day, D-West Boylston, and state Rep. Robert P. Spellane, D-Worcester, asked the state Legislature to include the $5 million in one of the upcoming supplemental budgets.

"I'm doing everything I can to assist the towns of Rutland and Holden to assist the issues of sewer capacity and I've been in direct contact with the Department of Conservation and Recreation and the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority to expedite the Worcester projects that impact the sewer capacity of both Holden and Rutland," Mr. Evangelidis said yesterday.

In a letter dated July 12, two and a half weeks before Rutland selectmen voted to allow five duplexes and one single-family house to connect to the Rutland-Holden Trunk Sewer over the objections of the state DCR, Mr. Evangelidis and state Sen. Stephen M. Brewer, D-Barre, wrote to Richard Sullivan, state DCR commissioner, informing him that Rutland had sought, and been denied, annual increases in its allotted capacity through the trunk.

The sewer use issue involves several parties.

The MWRA controls the Rutland-Holden Trunk Sewer with the state DCR. Municipalities are assessed for using the trunk sewer, and the MWRA is talking about having municipalities take over the aging system.

The MWRA and state DCR control of the trunk sewer stems from its original purpose. Mr. Evangelidis said it was built about 1932 to protect the water supply for Boston, which gets it water from the Quabbin Reservoir and is fed by the Wachusett area.

The Rutland-Holden Trunk Sewer was provided as an alternative to private septic systems that leach into the ground, with the intention of keeping all the natural groundwater sources leading into the Quabbin Reservoir clean, Mr. Evangelidis said.

NAME: HOLDEN SELECTMEN