Extra Helping of Squid 7.1.13: Muddy Water…

Muddy Water…Squid hates muddy water—hates swimming in it, hates drinking it, definitely hates brushing the old pearly whites with it. There’s just nothing better than great visibility and gentle currents, or than a clean taste and crystal clear H20, that allows Squid to float in a dreamy state, imagine vacationing in warmer waters and live a healthy, water-driven life.

But Squid's not the only one that has a bad taste for murky, dirty, icky, foul water. If you read the Weekly's cover story a couple of weeks ago (“Troubled Waters,” June 13-19), you'd have learned that a bunch of local (and mostly poor) folks living in San Lucas can't rely on the local municipal water system because wells have been contaminated by nitrate runoff; instead, they have to line up for bottled. Weekly reporter Sara Rubin wrote the story, and on the cover the paper showed a local guy carrying some empty 5-gallon jugs on his way obtain safe water from a reliable alternative water source, the Salinas-based bottled water company Pure Water.

And then, this: Someone at the Pure Water Bottling Company thought that somehow the story implied THEIR water was contaminated (despite a subhed that reads “California has $455 million it can spend on making drinking water safe. So why are so many poor people in Monterey County forced to line up for bottled?”)

The story, the cover, the sub-headline, all stated the complete opposite. In fact, everything in the whole issue made clear as pure water that it's the municipal water that's undrinkable and that Pure Water is being brought in as the safe, tasty, drinkable alternative. Still, "Pure Water has received multiple phone calls!"

How did we find out about all this, the alleged multiple phone calls from alleged concerned customers? Weekly publisher Erik Cushman, who had spoken at a local rotary club luncheon at  the invitation of local attorney Chris Panetta, was lurking around his mailbox expecting a thank you or a box of chocolates from Panetta. Instead, he got a demand for a retraction letter and the threat of a lawsuit, signed by Panetta and on Fenton and Keller letterhead. In fact, they provided the Weekly with the proposed retraction as well. Thanks for that, Chris P!

We're sorry Panetta didn't tell his client to go re-read the story, or go check the plant’s filtration system and not waste his valuable money on pointless letters. That would have been a good start. Squid wants you to remember, in case you, too, have water coming out of your tap that smells bad and tastes worse—don't drink it and don't give it to your pets or kids. Drink something else. Something like bottled water. Or in your kid’s case, a caffeinated energy drink.

Who's thirsty?