That morning cup of joe goes a good distance – typically a little bit too lengthy. Vero Seaside Excessive College pupil, Internet Webster was just lately awarded the 2025 Florida Sea Grant Skoch Scholarship for his analysis quantifying caffeine as an anthropogenic marker for septic tank contamination within the waterfront neighborhood of Queens Cove.
Funding for the Chuck Skoch Scholarship is supplied by the Skoch household of Boynton Seaside, in reminiscence of Charles “Chuck” Skoch, an avid fisherman, boat captain, and Florida resident. Annually, Florida Sea Grant selects an impressive highschool senior competing within the State Science and Engineering Honest of Florida to obtain the scholarship, which acknowledges promising younger researchers like Webster, in coastal or marine science-related fields.
“The coed’s science truthful undertaking actually caught my consideration as a result of it connects to points we’re actively coping with proper now. Septic and sewer methods—whether or not it’s changing them, coping with failures, or the flooding of drain fields throughout current hurricanes like Helene and Milton, are huge matters of concern,” says Brittany Scharf, Florida Sea Grant Hernando County Extension Agent and Skoch Scholar Choose.
Internet Webster spent his childhood fishing, swimming, and visiting his grandparents’ home alongside Florida’s Treasure Coast. However crimson tide occasions in 2016 and 2018 revealed the vulnerability of the state’s waters. Conscious of the dangerous contaminants and pollution that gas such blooms, Webster devoted his early scientific training to defending his coastal yard.
“The Indian River Lagoon is my hometown, and it’s at the moment beneath fast degradation primarily based on demand for coastal property. It’s the most biologically various estuary within the US with 4,300 species, so it is very important protect these habits and species as a result of if we don’t, they may all go away,” says Webster.
In partnership with Ocean Analysis and Conservation Affiliation (ORCA), Webster applied a novel tracing methodology for septic leachate within the Queens Cove, situated in St. Lucie County. Webster chosen a variety of sapling websites with septic and sewer infrastructure, and a managed space. He utilized high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to determine and isolate caffeine compounds in samples and quantified the concentrations of ultraviolet (UV) and visual mild that’s absorbed by a pattern utilizing UV-VIS. Apart from Internet’s current analysis on traces of caffeine to detect septic leachate within the IRL, there is just one different present examine completed two years in the past.
So how can caffeine be a source-specific indicator for wastewater?
“Caffeine is a singular and dependable tracer since it’s consumed repeatedly and solely passes by way of people,” says Webster. “It has the longest half-life in aquatic environments, that means decomposition of the substance takes longer. Different tracers equivalent to sucrose or acetaminophen degrade quick, and will happen naturally within the surroundings and aren’t consumed on a regular basis.”
Webster synthesized his information right into a GIS map to point out caffeine concentrations throughout Queens Cove. He discovered the very best ranges close to enclosed, older subdivisions with restricted hydrodynamic flushing—a course of that makes use of water motion to clear contaminants. Newer subdivisions with higher water circulation confirmed decrease concentrations.
One surprising end result was a caffeine “hotspot” in a seemingly open space, suggesting that human waste may be coming into the water through different pathways—probably from boat sewage.
