“I WISH I HAD. SO I BUILT IT.”

From tracking pollution with caffeine to science-led advocacy, Alex Webster is turning youth action into coastal resilience

By Alexandra Escobar

Photo courtesy of Alex Webster

Alex Webster still remembers the smell of the beloved New River Lagoon after catastrophic algal blooms turned it toxic. Fish floated belly-up across the surface. The air around the lagoon stank so badly that families stayed indoors. 

Twice during Alex's teenage years, in 2016 and again in 2018, one of the world’s most biologically diverse estuaries began to suffocate under the weight of mismanaged infrastructure.

“I saw the fish kills happen again, and it was like no one had done anything since the first time,” Alex said. “That’s when I started to get really frustrated. It’s not just one time event, this is going to keep happening.”

The blooms were fueled by nutrient pollution, excess nitrogen and phosphorus leaking from outdated and failing septic systems. Roughly 30% of Florida households, totaling more than 2.6 million homes, rely on septic tanks. These systems discharge an estimated 426 million gallons of wastewater into the soil and groundwater every day. According to studies by NOAA and the EPA, few of these systems are regularly monitored for leaks, leaving fragile coastal waterways exposed to hidden pollution.

Today Alex, now 19, is fighting to protect the lagoon that surrounded him during his childhood. He’s already developed a novel method to trace septic pollution using caffeine, started a nonprofit educating youth on coastal restoration, and won multiple national and international science awards, all while embarking on a combined bachelor’s and master’s program in marine science at the University of Florida.

Mapping Pollution

From a young age growing up in the coastal city of Vero Beach, Alex’s life was defined by proximity to water. He learned to fish, sail, and explore the waterways, attending summer camps and spending nearly every day on the water. Watching the lagoon thrive shaped him. Seeing it decline lit a fire drive that would guide his work for years to come.

In high school, he focused on tackling local environmental threats, from nutrient pollution to failing wastewater infrastructure. Through programs at Vero Beach High School and the FAU Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, Alex conducted hands-on research on septic tank contamination, sediment dynamics, and seagrass ecology, presenting his work alongside graduate students and developing innovative approaches to track human impact on waterways.

By his senior year, Alex was tackling a deceptively complex question: how can human impact on water systems be tracked more effectively?

Before, scientists often relied on pharmaceutical tracers, chemical compounds like certain drugs found in wastewater, to track contamination. While effective in theory, these tracers were costly, inconsistent, and frequently undetectable at the extremely low concentrations present in real-world wastewater. Nutrients such as nitrogen or phosphorus offered little clarity on their own, since they also occur naturally in the environment.

“You can’t just point to nitrogen or phosphorus and say, ‘That’s us,’” Alex explains. “But caffeine? That only comes from us.”

Drawing on this challenge, Alex developed a method that uses caffeine as a chemical fingerprint to trace septic tank pollution back to human sources. Because caffeine is widely consumed through coffee, tea, sodas, and pharmaceuticals but does not occur naturally in the environment, it serves as a reliable marker of wastewater contamination. In his research, Alex developed a method to trace septic tank pollution by measuring caffeine concentrations in surface waters. He uses high-performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection, which captures caffeine’s characteristic light-absorption signature. 

The technique offered a lower-cost, scalable alternative to expensive pharmaceutical tracers that could be applied beyond the laboratory for practical environmental monitoring.

“It’s accessible, it’s scalable, and most importantly, it’s actionable. When you can say, ‘This pollution is ours,’ it changes the conversation.”

Alex’s work quickly drew attention. By mapping areas with high concentrations of caffeine leachate, Alex provided the first direct evidence that human waste was reaching the lagoon. He presented these findings to local legislators, municipal environmental advisory boards, and neighborhood councils, using clear risk maps to help officials prioritize which neighborhoods needed sewer upgrades first. This work didn’t just guide infrastructure policy but also encouraged the community to take greater ownership of their waterways.

As a result, Alex  earned prizes at regional, state, and international science and engineering fairs  and was recognized by Florida Sea Grant and in the local media. Pilot studies in the community of Queens Cove confirmed the method’s reliability, giving both scientific credibility and practical guidance in a state where climate denial and policy gridlock often stall action, allowing Alex to provide clear evidence of human impact that could drive real change.

Mobilizing Youth

But Alex’s focus doesn’t stop at research. Over time, his work expanded into something just as urgent: education.

 “If kids don’t care about their environment, they won’t protect it,” Alex says. “And they won’t care if no one shows them how.”

That belief led Alex to found My Pet Mangrove, a youth-led environmental initiative dedicated to restoring Florida’s coastal ecosystems through science-based education and hands-on action.

As founder, Alex designed the program to give students direct involvement in every stage of mangrove restoration. Participants collect sprouted mangrove pods and nurture them in classrooms until they grow into leafy seedlings. They then learn about the ecological role of aquatic “blue carbon ecosystems” before finally replanting the young trees along the coast.

Students learn how blue carbon ecosystems like mangrove forests store carbon, filter water, stabilize shorelines, and provide habitat for wildlife. By nurturing seedlings and then planting them in the community, they gain hands-on experience and see the tangible results of their care, helping them feel empowered to act on environmental challenges by fostering a sense of responsibility. 

“I didn’t have a program like this when I was in high school,” he says. “I wish I had. So I built it.”

Alex’s work takes on added urgency in Florida, one of the most climate-vulnerable states in the U.S., where recent policy changes have explicitly removed many references to climate change from state law and reshaped how the issue is presented in public education.

Under HB 1645, which Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law in 2024, much of the language addressing climate change and emissions reduction was deleted from state statutes. Environmental advocates have blasted the move as a dangerous erasure of reality, warning that scrubbing these terms systematically undermines Florida’s ability to prepare for already-present existential threats like rising seas and record-shattering heat. 

At the same time, state education officials have instructed textbook authors to remove or defend references to climate change in science texts before they can be approved for use in Florida public schools. Critics argue this move weakens student exposure to accepted climate science.

In classrooms shaped by these decisions, Alex strives to provide students with both the scientific context and structured opportunities to act on it, creating meaningful ways for them to begin making a difference.

His goal is “getting it into youth’s hands,” he says, “and making sure they don’t fall down this road where they start denying the environment that’s changing right outside their backyard.”

Alex emphasizes that by taking meaningful action, students can "build hope" and see the tangible impact of their efforts. He likens this to nurturing a mangrove, noting that while the process is slow and intentional, it eventually takes root. For Alex, the goal isn't perfection, but rather the courage to act on a shared responsibility to protect their home.

Reflecting on his generation, Alex notes how deeply this moment resonates with young people coming of age amid overlapping crises. 

“We’ve all had to grow up fast in this generation through climate change, economic instability and political unrest,” he says. “A lot of us are ready and desperate to make change.”

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This story is part of Why Not Us, an open call series amplifying youth-led activism. From the submissions received, five were selected for coverage.