A body of land surrounded by water is an island; a body of land surrounded by polluted water is someplace nobody wants to go. Without doubt, all of us would rather live on the former than the latter. Unfortunately, it seems like water quality around Captiva has been trending toward the latter over the last few years. Red tide seems to come more often, be more severe, and stick around longer than it ever has. Red drift algae litters the beaches, and "swamp snot" green algae threatens to smother vast stretches of the grass beds in

Pine Island Sound. Is it any wonder that water quality issues have been dominating area discussions for the last few months?
In early December, Lee County considered adopting an ordinance regulating the professional use of fertilizers in hopes of reducing runoff and nutrient loading into local waters. After hearing input from the Captiva Community Panel and other concerned groups, the County decided that the proposed ordinance was not strong enough. It is being re-written and will be resubmitted in January.
That the steady degradation of the water around Captiva is a pressing issue is evident from the two resolutions the Community Panel adopted at its November meeting. (You can download and read the resolutions HERE (the Fertilizer Resolution) and HERE (the Water Quality Resolution)--both are .pdf documents). Sanibel is as concerned as Captiva is. The Bayous Preservation Society has begun a monthly water-quality monitoring program, sampling water quality at four locations around the islands. Other groups and agencies are conducting similar monitoring efforts elsewhere, and the Community Panel would be sponsoring water-quality testing aimed exclusively at our waters if the Panel's grant request hadn't been shot down by the "Golden Goose" committee during the state budget deliberations.
We have a huge amount of reference material related to water quality. You can start with this White Paper regarding fertilizer use and the proposed ordinance. For a bit wider background on the general water-quality issue, you can download the 2005 Estuaries Report Card from the Conservancy of Southwest Florida (warning: this file is 4mb and may take a while to download for dial-up users). And, finally, we have this copy of the draft ordinance that you can read through.

You can join in the community discussion at our new Captiva Blog. We encourage all Captivans to discuss, debate, and make their opinions known.

Photo Feature
Courtesy of the Lee County Extension Office, we have a trio of photos showing the progression of palm-tree recovery in the years since Hurricane Charly ravaged Captiva. You can view the photos HERE.

The Captiva Community Panel is working on a number of projects to benefit Islanders. In the wake of the Safety Shoulder Survey carried out over the summer in which Captivans overwhelmingly said they wanted a safety shoulder, the Panel is working with Lee County DOT to make the shoulder a reality. At the same time, the Panel is working with Lee County Electric Cooperative (LCEC), Island Water, and other utilities to get our powerlines planted safely underground--out of sight and out of reach of storm winds and falling trees.
In addition, Panel subcommittees are exploring water-quality issues around our island, whether or not Captiva needs sewers (or merely much-improved septic monitoring and standards), and a host of other issues of either immediate or long-term importance to all of us.
All of these projects take time and volunteer effort. And they take money. The Panel has been hugely successful in gaining grants and subsidies for the island; as a general rule of thumb, the Panel converts every single dollar donated into more than $2 in grants and subsidies.
But even with that great a track record, the Panel still needs funding with which to operate. Your tax-deductible donations help to pay for things like this Web site, our email updates, and administrative and overhead costs for the Panel. Thanks to the superb efforts of the Panel members and our supporting staff, such costs have been kept comparatively miniscule, helping to keep the Panel's return on donor investment well above the 200% mark.
When you receive your Captiva Community Panel donation forms in the mail, please give generously. No other Island organization works harder to look ahead, desseminate timely and accurate information, and solicit Captivan's input on all the issues than the Captiva Community Panel.