CAFFEINE FOUND IN SEATTLE'S WATER.

ONTARIO, CANADA,--A Seattle, Washington, harbor has been hound to contain such high levels of caffeine that researchers have had to modify the tests by which they track water contamination, reports Murray White of Ontario's National Post.

So much coffee has found its way into Seattle's

Puget Sound that researchers are no longer able to use caffeine to easily detect the degree of human waste flowing from sewer systems into the water. As in other major cities, levels of caffeine has been used in Seattle to track the flow of waste that escapes through cracked sewer pipes and into bodies of water. Because the only animals that produce caffeine are humans, waste containing it could only have been contaminated from sewers or water treatment plants.

However, a lot of Seattle coffee ends up in storm drains and then flows directly into the Sound, explained Scott Mickelson, chief microbiologist for King County water quality control. He said peaks in the caffeine flow remain discernable. Just before 9am, for example, caffeine levels in the sewer system are nearly eight times as high as usual, he said.

Despite the problems, caffeine is still found is so small a concentration that it is not thought to be a threat to wildlife in the sound, Mickelson said. "There's probably not even a buzz effect," he said. Seattle gave birth to Starbucks in 1971. The chain has spawned more than 3000 stores world wide. In the greater Seattle area alone, there are 144 Starbucks locations.