It's common knowledge to anyone who lives near a landfill that dumps are a hotspot for seagulls. With their mountains of exposed trash, little to no human interference, and a fresh supply of garbage being trucked in daily, what gull in his right mind wouldn't make a landfill his new home? However, not until recently have gulls' effects on local ecosystems been studied. In the articles and study linked below, you will find that a spike in a local seagull population can cause drastically harmful effects on local waterways and reservoirs. Why is that? Well, simply because more gulls means more bird poop, and more bird poop means more contaminated water. FOL has always stressed the potential dangers of having Dunmore's Reservoirs located so close to Keystone Sanitary Landfill, but now these articles show that not only can the garbage itself contaminate our drinking water, but the unwanted avian company it attracts can too. Here's an excerpt from "Garbage-Fed Seagulls Are Spoiling Our Lakes And Reservoirs With Their Poop":

"The numbers are staggering. According to the new research, an estimated 240 extra tons of nitrogen and 39 extra tons of phosphorus are plopped [by seagulls] into these water systems each year across North America. Under normal circumstances, a little bird poop–filled with many beneficial nutrients–wouldn't be anything to worry about. But all of this added seagull crap is contributing to extensive algal blooms, which sucks a tremendous amount of oxygen from the water. This results in mass fish kills, and the proliferation of algal toxins across precious water bodies. Algal blooms also degrade recreational and fishing areas–not to mention the increased costs of local governments that have to deal with them."

Garbage-Fed Seagulls Are Spoiling Our Lakes And Reservoirs With Their Poop

Trash-Picking Seagulls Poop Hundreds of Tons of Nutrients

The Biogeochemical Implications of Massive Gull Flocks at Landfills