Richard Honour

Please watch also for toxicity and disease amongst the cats. In my forests here, just east of Seattle, where tens of thousands of tons of Toxic Sewage Sludge are dumped each year from King County's wastewater treatment plants, a mountain biker was killed recently by a cougar. The cat was emaciated and seriously ill as a result of eating its natural prey animals that thrive on the lush plants that bioassimilate and bioaccumulate toxics from the thick toxic sewage sludge deposits, and thereby suffer neurological and other adverse effects as a direct result of the County and State's toxic waste disposal behaviors. Systemic toxicity from multiple toxics is an expected consequence of a cat's life in a toxic urban environment. Another consequence of such toxic exposure can be epigenetic effects, whereby gene expression may be altered, yet without a mutation event. It all adds-up to modified behavior. I do find dead shrews, moles and mice in these sludge-filled forests, so scavenging of sludge-killed dead animals can also result in pathology in predatory species. My current work involves detection of high toxic levels of dioxins, furans, flame retardants (PBDEs), metals, perfluorocarbons, and so much more in these forest-disposed sludges, and you may suffer the same experience there; the agencies refer to these toxic sludges/wastes as fertilizer replacements, mulches, soil enhancers, and the like, but it is all very toxic to the resident animals - and to human visitors. Someone named Cindy visited that exact site of the Cougar attack, just a few years ago. Richard

With regard to the metadata analysis, in addition to: How many bobcats are there? Where are they? How large are their home rages? And, are they healthy?, you must inquire also of their genetic health, a critical survival factor. Are they totally inbred, or is there some recurring element of genetic diversity sneaking in, as a function of a few stray cays wandering in from time to time from the near or far adjacent foothills and mountains. This is a critical survival factor. Thank you for doing this work, Richard

Excellent work, not sufficiently covered anywhere - ever. By reviewing their images, the similarities to my own work here in the temperate rain forests of the western slopes/foothills of the Cascades of eastern King County, WA, are remarkable. If these images were presented to me as from my own region here, I would agree. Their contribution by this work is very important. We are working in the dark, from the perspective of fungal taxonomic genomics. Part of my work explores novel metabolites expressed by similar fungi in these watersheds that have been buried for decades with Land-Disposed Toxic Sewage Sludge, and that are now yielding novel compounds, likely as defensive chemicals against the tens of thousands of toxic compounds and the myriad of other microbes found in any toxic sewage sludge. I am certain there are new and valuable candidate pharmaceutical compounds in there, never expressed under 'normal' environmental conditions. The endless global searches for novel compounds from harsh environment microbes need go no further than the artificial harsh environments dumped on all of us in the form of Toxic Sewage Sludge, as generated by nearly any Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plant, anywhere in the US or elsewhere. The Hypholoma, Mycena and other genera and spp. I see in their images are spot-on to what we see elsewhere. Fungi are chemical factories, just waiting for an inciting agent or environmental change to cause a shift their production machinery to make yet new compounds. At present we are focused on the microbiomics of urine from cancer patients, but plan to target the microbiomics of toxic sewage sludge soon - they are related. Thank you greatly for this fine contribution. Richard Honour, Kenmore, WA

Only a very few of the tens of thousands of toxic metals, Persistent Organic Pollutants and Chemicals of Emerging Concern are ever evaluated by university researchers or the agencies. By logic alone, it is most likely the long-term cumulative effects of chronic exposure to low levels of water-borne contaminants and pollutants that will be proven to have the greatest adverse effects on sea mammal populations. Without even reviewing the literature, we can be certain there have not been any validated safety/toxicology studies of the sludge- and effluent-sourced toxicants that are released to your subject oceans, by anyone. The Salmon here are exposed to all effluent and sludge toxicants in their foods and waters, and these subtle but certain killers surge up the food chain to the Orcas. One of our treatment plants even has a newly engineered sandbar/wetlands for targeted effluent discharge, and it is a major Chinook breeding ground, yet the toxicants contained therein have never been evaluated. The first chore is to determine what the target analytes should be, thereafter to discover an analytical lab that would be willing to perform the most appropriate sampling protocols and analytical methods. Simple 'grab' sampling will not work, and neither will consulting with the operators of the wastewater treatment facilities, for they only test and report about the cardinal toxicants that assure their 'compliance.' Tracking the expected toxicants from their discharges into critical waters, and up the food chain to the Salmon, and to the Orcas should reveal some curious pathology.

I have a valid perspective on this project that may yield favorable results. I work in the Cascade foothills in Washington State, adjacent to Puget Sound, which has its own struggling Orca population. One of the greatest, albeit poorly recognized, threats to nearly all life forms here results from the subtle adverse effects of the toxins in the leachates and runoff from our contaminated forests that all go to Puget Sound in surface and ground water. The immediate and cumulative effects of water-borne toxins from the sewage sludges that are disposed in our mountain forests, on our farms, in our composts and from the wastewater effluents that are discharged directly into the Sound daily remain wholly unknown. It is likely the chronic diseases of Orcas, as brought about by wastewater treatment plant sludges and effluent discharges that reduce the vigor of the Orcas, not navy sonar, plastic bottles or the subtle consequences of climate change. We are killing ourselves and our wildlife with waste discharges that are assumed to be safe because they are rated as being 'in compliance,' but have never been subjected to safety/toxicology studies in relevant animal models.

Michael: Your well-stated and experienced comments are appreciated greatly. Thank you, Richard

David: Thank you for participating in this project. We are nearly there with this stage of the work. Very best regards, Richard

Excellent lab note. Thank you, Richard

Irena: Thank you for your comment, and for being interested in this project. Richard

I have been an antibiotic hunter for decades, and it looks like we may be on to something novel here. Thank you again, Richard

Jan: Please give me the notice on that and we will investigate. This is a critical public health and safety issue, much less a human and environmental health matter. This practice puts lives and health at risk, and must be stopped. The runoff and leachates from these toxic sludges run into many waters there, including the Yakima River, and then the Columbia River and the Pacific ocean. The Clean Water Act forbids this, but the State and local environmental and health agencies support these distressful practices, simply to allow lowest-cost and most convenient disposal. Who in Yakima and other counties wants to eat food grown in King County's sewage wastes? Richard

We are discovering that we are speaking with ourselves. This concept of exposing common forest fungi/mushrooms to an unknown agonist, more specifically to a man-made industrial chemical/toxin, to which these fungi would never be exposed in nature, we are in fact inciting the synthesis of novel secondary metabolites that can be described only by elucidating the underlying gene expression profiling systems (pathways of synthesis) that remain a mystery to science. Many discoveries remain as simple observations, but we are experiencing the same phenomena now repeatedly. More scientists are becoming interested, now that they can see the pattern, as well. These fungi could save us from ourselves.