Two oppos to Nordic's salmon tankfarm detail BEP's flawed reasoning in letters to the editor.

Two letters to the editor that were published November 26, 2020, The first is by Amy Grant, President of Upstream Watch; the second by Belfast citizen Lawrence Reichard

1. Questions remain in Nordic permit process
Nordic Aquafarms’ permitting process with the Department of Environmental Protection is far from over. Board of Environmental Protection member Susan Lessard stated that “this isn’t a period at the end of a sentence but more like three dots.” Nordic has a very steep slope ahead of them to meet the multiple conditions the Department of Environmental Protection requested. Given the opportunity for appeals on many of the permit conditions, this process will drag on for years.

We look forward to getting this in front of a judge and will be filing our appeal in the coming days. The BEP has granted permits that were incomplete and instead is letting Nordic fill in the blanks after the fact. That approach is both illogical and illegal.

The DEP has asked for multiple conditions which would normally be required before permits get approved. Board members questioned the wisdom of applying conditions at the same time as issuing permits, but in the end all votes were unanimous without discussion, suggesting that the vote was predetermined.

At least 12 of the conditions on the site location of development application permit open the door for further appeals that require public hearings. Upstream is fortunate to have a strong science-based team in place to see this process through, however long that may take. Upstream will continue to stand with the need for much more conclusive data and clear answers before construction begins.

The law says that conditions can only be used for minor and easily fixable issues and they are not interchangeable with permit requirements. Permit conditions are allowed to assure compliance with the permit, not to qualify for a permit after the project is constructed. Nordic still has a lot of questions to answer.
By Amy Grant, President, Upstream Watch, Belfast

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2. The BEP's fatal flaws
Last week the Maine Board of Environmental Protection approved permits for Nordic Aquafarms' industrial fish farm.

In its decision, BEP ignored and violated many of its own rules and regulations by not requiring Nordic to perform legally mandated studies. Apparently the board is happy to fly blind with the future of Belfast Bay and the woods, wetlands and wildlife habitat Nordic seeks to destroy.

The BEP decision has at least two fatal flaws. Before it can even apply for BEP permits, Nordic must by law establish title, right and interest to all lands it intends to use, but BEP chose to completely ignore very substantial problems with Nordic's TRI. It's ludicrous to rule that Nordic has sufficient TRI while Nordic's TRI is being litigated in court — especially when a Maine court recently ruled that active litigation by definition obviates TRI. The BEP chose to utterly ignore this.

The second flaw is the question of Nordic's competence — or incompetence. As an official BEP intervenor who has repeatedly documented significant Nordic incompetencies, I was barred from addressing these incompetencies in my testimony.

This, too, is ludicrous. As city of Belfast attorney Bill Kelly has urged the Belfast Planning Board to do, the BEP focused exclusively on the viability of Nordic's design, not the company's ability to actually follow that design competently. That's like buying a perfectly viable new Ford and then handing the keys to your 4-year-old child.

Perhaps the worst of all this is that no BEP member lives in Belfast or Northport. Thus none of them will have to live with the consequences of allowing Nordic to daily spew at least 7.7 million gallons of effluent into Belfast Bay, to annually devour at least 630 million gallons of our freshwater, and to destroy our woods, wetlands, wildlife habitat and hiking trails.

With its Nordic decision, the BEP has failed to protect our environment and has failed the people of Maine — all for the sake of wealthy corporate executives and stockholders, and high-end consumers. Let's hope our courts don't follow suit.

By Lawrence Reichard, Belfast

Casella Wastes' Juniper Ridge Landfill leachate is it safe?

 JRL's recent letter to the editor  declared the company's landfill leachates, tanker-trucked daily to a wastewater treatment plant  on the shore of Penobscot River in Old Town  meet all regulatory requirements.

As clean water advocates , from statewide NGOs to the Penobscot Indian Nation, note,   Casella's hastily written letter to the editor from Casella's Toni King is more  remarkable for what it doesn't say than what it does about its chemical brew.

Is Juniper Ridge Landfill leachate polluting the Penobscot River? You wouldn't know from Ms King's letter.

King's letter is filled with comforting phrases: "as required by law"... "carefully regulates"..."limits concentrations"..."requires monitoring"... "all applicable licensing criteria"... "compliant with state law".. 

But those could be used to describe  nuclear waste, or the tainted leachate from GAC Chemical's. shoreline waste dumps

Also along the way: there are so many other polluters, ours is such a minor portion. This reminds me of something then-

DEP Commissioner David Littell said early in the process. I don't have the exact words in front of me, but the essence was: The DEP does not exist to eliminate pollution; its job is to license pollution. Take this wherever it leads. Thanks to all for the work you are doing. Paul S. 207 907 0906

Casella Waste calls Penobscot Nation "activist group". Says landfill's leachate treated enuf before pumped into Penobscot River

 As printed in the Bangor Daily News  11/22/2020

Landfill and leachate 

By Toni M. King, Casella Waste Systems

 An activist group is claiming that leachate from the state-owned landfill in Old Town is discharged — untreated — into the Penobscot River. This is absolutely false.

 “Leachate” is liquid that passes through solid waste in a landfill. Liquid in waste and rainwater that passes through waste is captured within the landfill, conveyed to a secure tank and transported offsite to a treatment plant. 

 The state-owned landfill is highly engineered with double liners, leak detection systems and a sophisticated liquid conveyance system. It contracts with the Old Town mill for treatment and disposal of its leachate, as required by law. 

 The Department of Environmental Protection carefully regulates every step in this process. It limits concentrations in discharges and requires monitoring for a range of parameters. The state-owned landfill and the Old Town Mill are fully compliant with these requirements. 

 The DEP recently reviewed the landfill’s operations relative to future leachate disposal. It concluded that all applicable licensing criteria for proposed waste discharge were met and the discharge won’t lower the quality of the Penobscot River. 

 There are five licensed wastewater treatment plants north of Old Town discharging to the Penobscot River. There are 11 more discharging further downstream. The amount attributable to the state-owned landfill – all of it treated – is 1/100,000th of the total. 

Wastewater and leachate are collected and treated to ensure the safety of our environment. Disposal from the state-owned landfill is compliant with state law, and a miniscule portion of the overall discharges permitted to the river. 

 Toni M. King 

 Region Engineer 

 Casella Waste Systems

Nordic Aqua Farms state permits: final BEP hearing 11/19/2020 AUDIO mp3s

On November 19, 2020 Maine Board of Environmental Protection held its regular meeting by ZOOM. One of the topics at the meeting: Nordic Aquafarms  DEP permits.  Listen to selections from the meeting

NORDIC

Closing arguments at start of hearing   Full 11/1920  BEP  Nordic hearing 2hrs

1.Closing Arguments_Intro and Dacid Lossee Upstream Watch 10min30sec

2. Barry Costa_Pierce U New England_8min33sec.mp3

3 Eric Heim NAF  6min 6sec

4 Closing argument Kim Tucker MLU  2min11sec

5. Michael Lannon Northport Village Corp (NVC) 3min 49sec   

DISCUSSIONS

Sue Lessard discussion DEP response to plant emergencies 16min

Sue Lessard 2. Discussion DEP oversight of Special  Conditions  6min23sec

Another topic at BEP meeting   NECEC Powerline Plan - Listen to 15min discussion at Maine BEP's 11/19/20 meeting, led by BEP executive analyst Bill Hinkel. TOPIC NRCM's appeal to BEP against transfer of ownership of planned powerline to new corporate LLC . What BEP decides.

Penobscot Bay Report 10/31/20 Pesticides & Maine Pot Grows. Landfills, landbased aquaculture

  Maine Board of Pesticides Control PC received a letter at its September meeting from Professor John Jemison, a soil and water quality specialist with the U-Maine Cooperative Extension, with concerns over the inadequate regulation of pesticide use on Maine-grown\ marijuana. Here is the letter https://www.maine.gov/dacf/php/pesticides/documents2/bd_mtgs/sep20/pesticides-and-cannabis-production.pdf

MICROBIA. Oldest of Earth's communities gets scrutiny. 2005 - 2020

Links to Pub-Med abstracts on scientific journal articles relating to microbiology and microsociology, quorum sensing and biofilm formation & excerpts from the abstracts.

2020

2020 Quorum sensing regulates 'swim-or-stick' lifestyle in the phycosphere " Interactions between phytoplankton and bacteria play major roles in global biogeochemical cycles and oceanic nutrient fluxes. These interactions occur in the microenvironment surrounding phytoplankton cells, known as the phycosphere. 

Bacteria in the phycosphere use either chemotaxis or attachment to benefit from algal excretions. Both processes are regulated by quorum sensing (QS), a cell-cell signalling mechanism that uses small infochemicals to coordinate bacterial gene expression"

2020 Inhibiting bacterial cooperation is an evolutionarily robust anti-biofilm strategy  " Bacteria commonly form dense biofilms encased in extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). Biofilms are often extremely tolerant to antimicrobials but their reliance on shared EPS may also be a weakness as social evolution theory predicts that inhibiting shared traits can select against resistance. 

Here we show that extracellular polymeric substances extruded as...biofilms is a cooperative trait whose benefit is shared among cells, and that EPS inhibition reduces both cell attachment and antimicrobial tolerance. 

We then compare an EPS inhibitor to conventional antimicrobials in an evolutionary experiment. While resistance against conventional antimicrobials rapidly evolves, we see no evolution of resistance to EPS inhibition. 

We further show that a resistant strain is outcompeted by a susceptible strain under EPS inhibitor treatment, explaining why resistance does not evolve. Our work suggests that targeting cooperative traits is a viable solution to the problem of antimicrobial resistance."

2019

2019  Surviving as a Community: Antibiotic Tolerance and Persistence in Bacterial Biofilms  "we review recent progress aimed at understanding the mechanical features that drive biofilm resilience and the biofilm formation process at single-cell resolution. We discuss findings regarding mechanisms underlying bacterial tolerance and persistence in biofilms and how these phenotypes are linked to antibiotic resistance. New strategies for combatting tolerance and persistence in biofilms and possible methods for biofilm eradication are highlighted to inspire future development."

2019  Quorum sensing in Vibrio spp.: the complexity of multiple signalling molecules in marine and aquatic environments  "Quorum sensing (QS) is a density-dependent mechanism enabling bacteria to coordinate their actions via the release of small diffusible molecules named autoinducers (AIs).  Vibrio spp. are able to adapt to changing environmental conditions by using a wide range of physiological mechanisms ...... Cell-to-cell communication controls many of their vital functions such as niche colonization, survival strategies. "

2019 Big Impact of the Tiny: Bacteriophage-Bacteria Interactions in Biofilms  "Bacteriophages (phage viruses) have been shaping bacterial ecology and evolution for millions of years, for example, by selecting for defence strategies. Evidence supports that bacterial biofilm formation is one such strategy and that biofilm-mediated protection against phage infection depends on maturation and composition of the extracellular matrix. Interestingly, studies have revealed that phages can induce and strengthen biofilms."

2019  Behavioral heterogeneity in quorum sensing can stabilize social cooperation in microbial populations  " Microbial communities are susceptible to the public goods dilemma, whereby individuals can gain an advantage within a group by utilizing, but not sharing the cost of producing, public goods. 

In bacteria, the development of quorum sensing (QS) can establish a cooperation system in a population by coordinating the production of costly and sharable extracellular products (public goods). Cooperators ..... are vulnerable to being undermined by QS-deficient defectors that escape from QS but benefit from the cooperation of others. 

Although microorganisms have evolved several mechanisms to resist cheating invasion in the public goods game, it is not clear why cooperators frequently coexist with defectors and how they form a relatively stable equilibrium during evolution."

"QS-directed social cooperation can select a conditional defection strategy prior to the emergence of QS-mutant defectors, depending on resource availability. Conditional defectors represent a QS-inactive state of wild type (cooperator) individual and can invade QS-activated cooperators by adopting a cheating strategy, and then revert to cooperating when there are abundant nutrient supplies irrespective of the exploitation of QS-mutant defector."

 "[T]he incorporation of conditional defection strategy into the framework of iterated public goods game with sound punishment mechanism can lead to the coexistence of cooperator, conditional defector, and defector in a rock-paper-scissors dynamics."

2018

2018  Maximizing Growth Yield and Dispersal via Quorum Sensing Promotes Cooperation in Vibrio Bacteria  "Quorum sensing (QS) is a form of bacterial chemical communication that regulates cellular phenotypes, including certain cooperative behaviors, in response to environmental and demographic changes. Despite the existence of proposed mechanisms that stabilize QS against defector exploitation, it is unclear if or how QS cooperators can proliferate in some model systems in populations mostly consisting of defectors. 

We predicted that growth in fragmented subpopulations could allow QS cooperators to invade a QS defector population. This could occur despite cooperators having lower relative fitnesses than defectors due to favored weighting of genotypes that produce larger populations of bacteria"

2018  Coumarin: a novel player in microbial quorum sensing and biofilm formation inhibition ". An intricate cell-cell communication system termed quorum sensing (QS) and the coordinated multicellular behaviour of biofilm formation have both been identified"...."QS systems allow bacteria to adapt rapidly to harsh conditions, and are known to promote the formation of antibiotic tolerant biofilm communities. It is well known that biofilm is a recalcitrant mode of growth and it also increases bacterial resistance to conventional antibiotics..... Reports have highlighted the potential role of coumarins as alternative therapeutic strategies based on their ability to block the QS signalling systems and to inhibit the formation of biofilms in clinically relevant pathogens."

2018 Archaeal biofilm formation  "Biofilms are structured and organized communities of microorganisms that represent one of the most successful forms of life on Earth. Bacterial biofilms have been studied in great detail, and many molecular details are known about the processes that govern bacterial biofilm formation, however, archaea are ubiquitous in almost all habitats on Earth and can also form biofilms. In recent years, insights have been gained into the development of archaeal biofilms, how archaea communicate to form biofilms and how the switch from a free-living lifestyle to a sessile lifestyle is regulated."

2017

2017 An Update on the Sociomicrobiology of Quorum Sensing in Gram-Negative Biofilm Development   "Bacteria are social creatures that are able to interact and coordinate behaviors with each other in a multitude of ways. The study of such group behaviors in microbes was coined “sociomicrobiology” in 2005. Two such group behaviors in bacteria are quorum sensing (QS) and biofilm formation. At a very basic level, QS is the ability to sense bacterial density via cell-to-cell signaling using self-produced signals called autoinducers, and biofilms are aggregates of cells that are attached to one another via a self-produced, extracellular matrix. 

"Formation of mature biofilms. In addition to attachment, QS regulates other aspects of biofilm formation, including accumulation of biofilm biomass, biofilm structure, and the dispersal of biofilm cells." "Since cells in biofilm aggregates are in close proximity, biofilms represent an ecologically relevant environment for QS."

2016

2016 Editorial: Signals to sociality: how microbial communication fashions communities  "[M]ost bacteria exist in nature in multifaceted communities that are often associated with living and non-living surfaces. Within these communities, bacteria are exchanging information with other bacteria and other organisms, including eukaryotes, to generate coordinated behaviors. 

Central to this microbial information exchange is communication between cells. The act of communication exists in many forms and is often considered essential for organized group behaviors between individuals and for the development of multicellular organisms.

2016 Editorial: Signals to sociality: how microbial communic fashions communities " "[M]ost bacteria exist in nature in multifaceted communities that are often associated with living and non-living surfaces. Within these communities, bacteria are exchanging information with other bacteria and other organisms, including eukaryotes, to generate coordinated behaviors. "

2016 Quorum sensing is a language of chemical signals and plays an ecological role  in algal-bacterial interactions   "Algae are ubiquitous in the marine environment, and the ways in which they interact with bacteria are of particular interest in marine ecology field. The interactions between primary producers and bacteria impact the physiology of both partners, alter the chemistry of their environment, and shape microbial diversity."

2016 Quorum Sensing and Quorum Quenching in the Phycosphere of Phytoplankton: a Case of Chemical Interactions in Ecology  "The interactions between bacteria and phytoplankton regulate many important biogeochemical reactions in the marine environment, including those in the global carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur cycles. At the microscopic level, it is now well established that important consortia of bacteria colonize the phycosphere, the immediate environment of phytoplankton cells. In this microscale environment, abundant bacterial cells are organized in a structured biofilm."

2015

2015 Quorum Sensing in Marine Microbial Environments  "Quorum sensing (QS) was first observed in a marine bacterium nearly four decades ago...Only in the past decade has there been a rise in interest in the role that QS plays in the ocean. 

"It has become clear that QS.... is involved in important processes within the marine carbon cycle, in the health of coral reef ecosystems, and in trophic interactions between a range of eukaryotes and their bacterial associates. "

"The most well-studied QS systems in the ocean occur in surface-attached (biofilm) communities...."   "QS is highly sensitive to the chemical and biological makeup of the environment and may respond to anthropogenic change, including ocean acidification and rising sea surface temperatures."

2012

2012 Interactions in Bacterial Biofilm Development: A Structural Perspective  "A community-based life style is the normal mode of growth and survival for many bacterial species. These cellular accretions or biofilms are initiated upon recognition of solid phases by cell surface exposed adhesive moieties. 

Further cell-cell interactions, cell signalling and bacterial replication leads to the establishment of dense populations encapsulated in a mainly self-produced extracellular matrix; this comprises a complex mixture of macromolecules. These fascinating architectures protect the inhabitants from radiation damage, dehydration, pH fluctuations and antimicrobial compounds"

2011

2011 "From Koch's Postulates to Socio-microbiology"  "The ability of bacteria to intercommunicate and process information about resource availability and the health status of the host has led to the concept of bacteria behaving like a social group. The study of social networks developed among bacteria in their natural habitats is called sociomicrobiology. From "Koch's Postulates to Socio-microbiology."

2011 The New Science of Sociomicrobiology and the realm of synthetic materials and systems ecology  "We need to remain cognizant that bacterial cells are individual organisms involved in complex social interactions. So not only do we need to think about systems and synthetic biology from a cellular perspective, but we need to think about systems and synthetic ecology too."

2011 Territoriality in Proteus: advertisement and aggression "Members of the bacterial species Proteus mirabilis are capable of rapid swarming over a hard agar surface. Swarming colonies display a striking phenotype in which a visible boundary forms between swarms of different strains. In contrast, boundaries do not arise between two swarms of a single strain (Figure 1). This behavior is a demonstration that P. mirabilis swarms are capable of territoriality and self versus non-self recognition"

"At the cellular level self vs non-self recognition is a behavior conserved throughout biology, from bacteria to animals and to vertebrate immune systems. The puzzle of how cells or organisms recognize and differentiate self from non-self is fundamental to fields as far from each other as immunology and ecology. 

The boundary formation between P. mirabilis is clearly a complex interplay of cell-to-cell communication and population development. In boundary formation, there is not only social recognition but also territorial competition between approaching Proteus strains. It seems likely that recognition and antagonism both play a role in the overall boundary formation process, but antagonism is not required for boundary formation. Molecular details of the dance leading to boundary formation remain to be determined.

2008

2008 Sociomicrobiology: The evolution of quorum sensing in bacterial biofilms  "Biofilms are surface-bound aggregates of bacteria that are held together by a matrix of extracellular polysaccharides (EPSs). Quorum sensing often controls the synthesis and secretion of EPSs, but although some bacteria switch on EPS production at high cell densities in biofilms, other bacteria switch it off. Nadell et al. used a model that simulates the growth of a simple biofilm to simulate competition between strains that had different EPSs and quorum-sensing phenotypes. This revealed that switching quorum sensing and EPSs off allows bacteria such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa to compete better in environments in which competition is prolonged and intense..."

2005

2005 Sociomicrobiology: the connections between quorum sensing and biofilms. Trends Microbiol 13: 27-33  [B]iofilms and quorum sensing represent two areas in which microbiologists focus on social aspects of bacteria. .....We believe that these two aspects of bacterial behavior represent a small part of the social repertoire of bacteria. Bacteria exhibit many social activities and they represent a model for dissecting social behavior at the genetic level. Therefore, we introduce the term 'sociomicrobiology'. "

"A clear challenge facing the field is to determine what parameters of a biofilm community influence the onset of quorum sensing and subsequent patterns of gene expression. Another key challenge is to determine the functional consequences of quorum sensing in a biofilm community...... Finally, the role of quorum sensing in mixed species systems remains to be explored. Does interspecies signaling occur frequently in mixed species systems, or do signal consuming organisms severely limit the extent of signaling that occurs? The answer to these questions will undoubtedly provide some expected results as well as surprises."

Investigations of the role quorum sensing plays in biofilm

systems for different organisms and how quorum sensing

works mechanistically in a biofilm community remain in

their infancy. A clear challenge facing the field is to

determine what parameters of a biofilm community

influence the onset of quorum sensing and subsequent

patterns of gene expression. Another key challenge is to

determine the functional consequences of quorum sensing

in a biofilm community. Does induction of quorum sensing

influence the pathogenic potential of biofilm communities

of some species, or perhaps alter the antimicrobial

tolerance of the biofilm? Finally, the role of quorum

sensing in mixed species systems remains to be explored.

Does interspecies signaling occur frequently in mixed

species systems, or do signal consuming organisms

severely limit the extent of signaling that occurs? The

answer to these questions will undoubtedly provide some

expected results as well as surprise

2002

Small Talk: Cell to cell Communication in Bacteria  Bonnie Bassler  "In a process called quorum sensing, groups of bacteria communicate with one another to coordinate their behavior and function like a multicellular organism. "

"Quorum sensing-controlled behaviors are those that only occur when bacteria are at high cell population densities. These behaviors are ones that are unproductive when undertaken by an individual bacterium but become effective by the simultaneous action of a group of cells. For example, quorum sensing regulates bioluminescence, virulence factor expression, biofilm formation, sporulation, and mating. "

"Quorum sensing is achieved through the production, release, and subsequent detection of and response to threshold concentrations of signal molecules called autoinducers. The accumulation of a stimulatory concentration of an extracellular autoinducer can only occur when a sufficient number of cells, a “quorum,” is present. "

BEP releases Nordic Aquafarms draft Final Order with red ink changes

On November 3, 2020, Maine Board of Environmental Protection released its amended final draft of its  MEPDES Pollution Permit and its Waste Discharge License. Here is the 5 page draft approval decision followed by 15 Special Conditions that the company must meet.

DRAFT Final  BEP  Order of Approval  5pgs 

DRAFT Order's  Special Conditions A thru O.

* A.  Effluent Limitations & Monitoring Requirements 2pgs  . 

* B. Narrative Effluent Limitations  C: Authorized Discharges, D: Notification Required  1pg

* E. Monitoring / Reporting. F: Dye Study 1pg 

* G: Ambient Water Quality Monitoring; H Operation & Maintenance Plan 4pgs  

*  I: Disease Control & J: Spills 3pgs

* K: Protection of Atlantic Salmon 3pgs

* L: Fish Feed; M: Reduced Waived Testing;  N: Commencement of Operations 1pg

* O: Reopening Of Permit For Modification; P: Severability 2pg 

END SPECIAL CONDITIONS