With Arroyo Hondo Creek rushing and both its reservoirs full, Bolinas suspended the mandatory water rationing ordinance adopted earlier this year. Though the town’s water use came close, it never reached the 66,000-gallon average threshold that would have triggered rationing. Bolinas Community Public Utility District board member Lyndon Comstock called the suspension “extremely good news,” and credited the town’s reduced consumption as much as the early rains. “The community has done an astonishing job,” he said. “To cut our community water usage in half, in a town that was already pretty conservative about water usage, is amazing.” The sign that alerted drivers to the town’s average water use came down last week, and though the mandatory rationing program won’t disappear, the district found no need to keep its 66,000-gallon trigger active. BCPUD used a complex calculus based on streamflows and reservoir levels to determine the trigger, and the recent heavy rains led to so much overland runoff into both Woodrat reservoirs that they are now at 100 percent capacity. “That in and of itself is such an improvement that we don’t want to be asking the community to do something that isn’t justified or necessary,” general manager Jennifer Blackman said. Since the beginning of October, Bolinas has seen nearly a foot of rain. The same period last year saw less than half an inch. The heavy rains roiled Arroyo Hondo Creek, causing turbidity that forced the district to draw from its Woodrat reservoirs. But by last week, as overland runoff boosted reservoir levels, the district was drawing from a calmer creek once again. Ms. Blackman said BCPUD doesn’t anticipate drawing from the reservoirs for some time, but she noted that long-range models are still predicting a dry year. “It’s all going to depend on how much more rain we get, of course, in the rest of the rain year,” she said. “It’s good news for now.” The rains didn’t benefit Marin’s water providers equally. North Marin Water District’s Stafford Lake, for example, saw little runoff from the storms. The reservoir’s levels rose just four feet, and it remains at 37 percent capacity. “It’s very micro-specific in terms of how different districts benefited from these weather systems,” Ms. Blackman said. Inverness and Stinson Beach remain under mandatory rationing regimes. In Inverness, rationing will kick in if the seven-day running average of the Inverness Public Utility District’s storage levels falls below 50 percent. Since the rains, the tanks have nearly filled, but IPUD customer services manager Wade Holland said the district will continue to monitor rainfall through the winter. “If we see a normal winter rainfall pattern between now and mid to late February, we will consider at that time recommending that the board relax, or even cancel, the current water shortage emergency,” Mr. Holland said. On the other hand, if late winter is dry, as it was last year, the emergency ordinance will remain in place in case it is needed next summer. Stinson Beach County Water District customers would face rationing if the district’s storage levels remained below 70 percent capacity for a week, but levels are currently between 85 and 90 percent. “The ordinance remains in place, ready to go if needed,” general manager Ed Schmidt said.