Marin County plans to use Phoenix Lake for flood-mitigation effort

As Marin County residents prepare for what could be increased flooding this winter, officials have developed a plan to use an existing reservoir as a buffer for the heavy rains to come. And on Monday, they got a small reminder of why that may be necessary.By noon, the water was already pouring into the street in Larkspur. It wasn't a king tide, but a graph on the NOAA website showed it was about 2 feet higher than expected. Fueled by El Ni o, or Kelvin waves, or some other unseen force of nature, Wendie Odwyer was in a good spot to see it happen."Not a normal high tide," she said, looking at the water seeping under the sandbags guarding the back parking lot. "No, this is special."Odwyer is the office manager for Pipe Spy, a plumbing company that is located just where all the water from the Tamalpais watershed flushes into the Bay. And if it wasn't for a 3-foot-high berm out front, it looked like the water would have been into the building."I think they've anticipated it, so it wasn't q