The small coastal enclave of Bolinas was without water Saturday night after its public utility district shut off supply to the entire town due to a \u201csubstantial water leak\u201d within the system.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Bolinas Community Public Utility District told residents in a post on its website to start filling up containers with extra water and expect to be without running water for the evening. The utility said that a contractor was on site by 6 p.m. Saturday and was working to repair the leak as quickly as possible, though the district didn\u2019t say where the leak was. Water was expected to go off around 6:45 p.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A proudly hippie township 13 miles north of San Francisco in unincorporated Marin County, Bolinas is home to some 1,200 people \u2014\u00a0a number that\u2019s stayed low for years, largely due to limits on access to water. In 1971, the utility district\u2019s board of directors declared a water shortage emergency that created a moratorium on new connections to the municipal water supply.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Leaks have been prevalent this spring around Bolinas. Minutes<\/a> from the district\u2019s February 2026 meeting show the utility dealt with major leaks on residential roads that flooded landscaping, and also required the district to call its emergency contractor, Piazza Construction.<\/p>\n