WATER WARS… Squid leads a boring little life, getting really excited about things like, say, the thought of planning commission meetings in Las Vegas, and the California American Water Company’s PROPONENT’S ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT (PEA), which the water company is filing with the PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION on July 14. The PEA will address environmental impacts of the COASTAL WATER PROJECT, aka Cal Am’s planned desalination plant. The PEA is required by the PUC, and may be used as the project’s draft Environmental Impact Report…and is due to be filed July 14?! Gasp. After Squid’s deadline! Sob. Which means all Squid can do is speculate on its contents and spread gossip—two of Squid’s specialties.

According to one rumor, the PEA will place the desal project NOT on the Moss Landing DUKE ENERGY site—the originally proposed location for the Cal Am project—but on the nearby PG&E property immediately adjacent to County Supervisor LOU CALCAGNO’s property. Hmmm.

According to another rumor, the REAL reason why the water company is only proposing a “replacement water project,” intended to supply 11,730 acre feet of water a year (the amount overdrawn from the Carmel River and the Seaside basin), isn’t really to comply with the state mandate—to stop overpumping the damaged river—but rather, it’s to skirt the County’s authority. Legally, Cal Am has to provide an alternate water supply that will yield a minimum of 10,730 acre feet a year, the amount illegally taken from the River. In all likelihood, if the desal project is built, it will be a regional water supply and pipes will also carry potable water to the Peninsula cities, some areas along Highway 68, North County, Salinas and the yet-to-be-built communities at Fort Ord. But that has all yet to be determined.

Cal Am will hold two public meetings after it files the PEA: 6-8pm July 18 at the ELKS LODGE, 150 Mar Vista Dr., Monterey, and 6-8pm on July 20 at the MOSS LANDING CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, 8071 Moss Landing Rd.

CLINT IS EVERYWHERE… Squid’s no golfer, but Squid knows good golf fashion when Squid sees it. And Squid, sadly, wasn’t seeing too many hip golf togs on a recent visit to Squid’s 93-year-old grandsquid in Colorado Springs. Grandsquid is a fan of the KISSING CAMELS GOLF CLUB, named for the red rock formations underneath PIKE’S PEAK that resemble two prone camels puckering up. Squid thought maybe a golf shirt with the Kissing Camels logo, worn with plenty of ironic detachment, would make a good souvenir. Plus none of Squid’s friends in Monterey would have anything like it. Squid was just about to snap up a collared mesh shirt, in white with a navy camels logo, when Squid looked at the tag: “TEHÁMA.” Squid rifled through the rest of the neatly folded piles. Everything was designed by CLINT EASTWOOD’s exclusive Carmel Valley resort line. Squid tried on the shirt. It looked oddly hip. Squid bought the shirt, feeling somewhat wistful. It was kind of like when Squid went to Hawaii, and brought back bags and bags of Mauna Loa brand cookies…only to find the same thing at the SEASIDE WALGREENS.