Over the past two years while attorneys and bureaucrats, appointees and environmental groups threatened lawsuits and screamed back and forth at each other, mother nature, as she often does, kindly intervened. A two year drought has given all of us living at the bottom of the Kissimmee River valleys drainage system a welcome break. There hasn't been any polluted water pouring down the C-43 Industrial Canal (formerly the Caloosahatchee River) not because of any real political change of heart, but because there simply hasn't been enough water to dump.

With the rainy season over for 2007, Lake Okeechobee's water level currently stands at 10 feet, 10 inches, some 5 feet below normal. By spring the lake will probably hit historic lows and with any luck at all, Mother Nature will grant us another year of reprieve from our own nitrogen-based eco-madness.

Why then are some of our most popular beaches posted with signs stating not to enter the water due to high bacteria levels? The answer is all the little sugars. Unlike cane fields, little sugars are everywhere. They are what scientists call non-point pollution sources. They come in a hundred different sizes and shapes — septic systems, overtaxed sewage plants, orange groves, cow pastures, commercial landscapers, lawns, motor oil, holding tanks, landfills, chicken farms — the list is endless. All of us, each and every person reading this essay, is a part of the problem.

Our society, by the nature of its operating systems, pollutes. We grow most of our food by using a clever combination of fertilizers and pesticides. Our yards are virtual chemistry labs. Our waste is laden with bacteria just as is the waste of the animals we consume. The environmental impact of every child born in America is 280 times greater than a child born in Bangladesh or Haiti.

Where do we start? We can't go pointing fingers at Bubba Wade this time for the polluted waters off of Bowman's Beach. The bacteria closing our beaches is from other nefarious sources — old package plants and the failing septics of Captiva likely being two of them. But when I hear the "say what I'm paid to say" scientists blaming this current outbreak of coastal pollution on bird poop or manatee droppings I want to cry. We've killed most of the manatees and birds have been pooping in the Gulf for a hundred years without closing down beaches.

Captiva, sadly enough, has become one of Florida's largest septic mounds. The island isn't even a block wide in places but it's crawling with septics. With elevations measured in meters, where do you think the effluent from those drain fields could go other than Pine Island Sound or the Gulf? It's sand, not stone.

Captiva needs a sewer system and they need it yesterday. Waterfront values plummet when they become sewerfront. Lacking the infrastructure to support the density, sewerfront is where the island is headed. The cost of a $20,000 hook up pales when compared with a million dollar drop in real estate values. South Seas Plantation, 'Tween Waters and other on-site package plants are strained to capacity. As these waste disposal systems fail, so to will a tourist industry that won't pay top dollar to spend a week along a posted beach. For them, it's self-preservation.

One option for the taxpayers of Captiva might be to try to pressure Lee County into footing all, or most of the cost. My guess is that Captiva taxpayers contribute tens of millions of dollars to the Lee County School system while sending less than a dozen kids to its schools. Perhaps they could split the cost.

Captiva could tie into Sanibel's sewer system or build their own. The engineers can work out the details, but the problem demands solving. If the citizens of Sanibel and Marco can afford a sewer system then I believe the good people of Captiva can as well.

As for all the other little sugars — the acres of septic systems in Lehigh, the overtaxed package plants, the husband opening his newly purchased bag of 10-10-20, Lee County Mosquito control, storm water runoff, ad infinitum — we must address all of them. They all impact our estuary and if it means stepping on the toes of special interests, then so be it. Florida is only as beautiful as the water surrounding her. Sanibel's fertilizer ordinance, along with the one currently proposed for Lee County are both steps in the right direction. If green lawns mean closed beaches, to hell with my lawn. One by one by one by one, all the little sugars must go.

Charles Sobczak is a member of PURRE: People United to Restore Our Rivers and Estuaries — and the author of "Alligators, Sharks & Panthers: Deadly Encounters with Florida's Top Predator — Man."