By Doug Fletcher,Staff Writer

AUBURN – Government shooters killed an estimated 40 gulls at Lake Auburn on Monday and were taking aim at more.

The birds are suspected of defecating in the water. Their waste has been linked to higher-than-usual fecal coliform counts, said Norm Lamie, the general manager of the Auburn Water District.

Lamie, along with Dave Jones, Lewiston’s director of public services, said Monday that nonlethal attempts to disrupt the birds haven’t been successful. Those attempts had included the use of pyrotechnics over the past week or so to scare off the birds.

The federally licensed shooters employed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture began killing gulls Monday when it became clear the earlier noise-making efforts weren’t working.

Lamie and Jones said getting rid of the birds at the lake – the public drinking water supply for Auburn and Lewiston – is part of a larger effort to get a handle on potential pollution threats.

Besides dealing with the gulls, officials have been surveying tributaries to the lake and checking septic systems along those feeder streams. The effort has even reached into Turner, Lamie said.

He said the gulls have been determined to be a migratory threat. The species summers farther inland than Auburn, he said, and winters at sea. The birds started using Lake Auburn as a stop-off during the migration last year.

It was last November that officials first noticed an increase in fecal coliform counts during routine monitoring of the water qualify, Lamie and Jones said Monday afternoon. By mid-December, when the birds had moved on, the fecal coliform counts decreased.

Excessive fecal coliform in drinking water can cause intestinal illnesses.

This year, there were an estimated 500 to 1,000 gulls on the lake by early November, with more flying in almost daily, Lamie said. The noisy pyrotechnics employed by the Water District failed to persuade the birds from landing on the lake.

The men said the efforts of the USDA shooters, along with help from local water department employees in driving birds toward the shooters, is intended to get the gulls to change their migratory pattern and leave the Lake Auburn area.

Lamie said shooters will be taking to the lake at about dawn and again at dusk, the two times when the birds are coming and going from the lake.

He also said that continuous monitoring of the water shows there is no threat to public health. The water is chlorinated to kill germs.

The study of potential pollution sources as well as actions aimed at protecting the water and its quality are designed to help the two cities avoid the necessity of building a $40 million water filtration plant.

Both cities have obtained federal filtration system waivers for the water system since 1991.

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