SQUID FRY 07.12.18: Swamp Butt

SWAMP BUTT… There are certain things in life Squid would rather not think about. Like calamari, how the shrimp-flavored popcorn gets made and the composition of the U.S. Supreme Court. And sewage – the less Squid thinks about sewage, the better.

Squid figures most humans are the same in this way, but recently, students and teachers atNorth Monterey County High School had little choice, because their school started smelling like it. On July 3, the school informed the Castroville Community Services District – which handles the area’s sewage – that they suspected there was a leak. Problem was, the pipe that leaves the school crosses through an area overgrown with brambles (and many ticks), and CCSD staff, hacking away with machetes, didn’t discover and repair the leak until July 5. “It was likeIndiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” says Eric Tynan, CCSD general manager. The good news, Tynan says, is the smell is already gone, as the plants provide good filtration. The bad news is, the district was supposed to be maintaining the decades-old pipe (which is on private land), something Tynan says his district wasn’t aware of. That means CCSD could be on the hook for fines. And it was no small leak: It is believed to have started in February, and Tynan estimates 725,000 gallons of sewage leaked since.

That’s a lot of sloppy joes.

DECIBEL LEVEL… Squid’s sense of hearing relies less on sound waves than on the motion of the ocean. Squid uses that cool feature – statocysts, instead of ears – as an excuse to stay home on Friday night and enjoy dance music from afar, instead of having to go out.

But with Monterey’s ongoing War On Fun, even that is likely a thing of the past. Bull & Bear Whiskey Bar and Taphouse is one of the only spots left for dancing downtown, but they’ve been under siege by property company Saucito Land Company, which one year ago sued Bull & Bear – and proprietors Anthony and Robert Buich – on the basis that residential tenants were moving out because of noise. (Tenants who knowingly moved into a downtown neighborhood, Squid notes.)

In March, the parties agreed that Bull & Bear would abide by the city’s noise ordinance, install sound-monitoring equipment to measure the volume. As soon as the monitors went in, noise alerts started registering: They were in violation of the ordinance “at least 90 percent of the time,” according to court papers filed by Saucito. Those papers are the next legal step – seeking an order holding the Buiches in contempt of court, “a quasi-criminal matter in which defendants may be fined and/or imprisoned.” Ouch.

The city’s noise ordinance calls for a maximum volume of 65 decibels. For comparison, a vacuum cleaner is about 70. Maybe Squid will take up cleaning instead of dancing.