"Historic" is a word state officials are using to describe current drought conditions in Washington state.

But what if that "historic" drought continues into 2016? Then what?

Those are questions many of the 170 people who attended a drought forum July 14 discovered state officials are starting to ask.

And they are answering it in part by trying to raise awareness of water resource fragility in a state that "historically" has been wet.

The drought forum was organized by Kate Dean of the North Olympic Development Council and cosponsored by the state Department of Ecology (DOE), City of Port Townsend and Local 20/20 with representatives from Port Townsend Paper Corp., Public Utility District (PUD), Jefferson County and Washington State University (WSU) Jefferson County Extension also participating.

THE FUTURE

The current drought condition was put into perspective by state officials during a two-and-a-half hour long chart-intensive presentation.

"Warmer (and perhaps drier) than normal conditions are anticipated during the upcoming cold season, which favors another low snowfall/snowpack year for the next winter/spring, which in turn increases the odds of another snow/water supply drought year in 2016," was a quote attributed to Nic Loyd, WSU meteorologist and shown on a giant screen to the audience by Bob Simmons of the local WSU office.

Jeff Marti, drought response coordinator for the DOE, followed Simmons' presentation by showing colorful modeled snow/water equivalents from 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 that showed the Olympic Mountains snowpack shrinking dramatically, almost vanishing entirely in 2015. And in fact, there is now zero snowpack in the Olympics.

In June of this year, Marti said Washington recorded its warmest June since the state started recording average temperature back in 1901.

After the meeting, Marti said the statewide emergency drought declaration is set to expire in November, but a task force made up of state officials and climate experts meets in the fall to consider whether it is prudent to renew that declaration before then.

Gov. Jay Inslee declared a statewide drought on May 15 and on July 13 the DOE announced it had received $16 million from the state Legislature for public projects to help "protect public health and safety from effects of the drought, and reduce economic or environmental impacts from water shortages."

WHAT TO DO LOCALLY

Speakers at the forum shared common sense and technical information. They urged people to learn more about where their water comes from, take steps to conserve now by letting lawns go brown, not plant new trees and shrubs, clean cars at a car wash that recycles water, reuse water when possible, and check faucets for drips.

In addition to Simmons, speakers included Ian Jablonski, water official from the City of Port Townsend, Bill Graham, water resource manager for PUD, Kevin Scott, sustainability director for the Port Townsend Paper Corp., Susan Porto of Jefferson County Environmental Health and Cindy Jayne, a volunteer with Local 20/20.

State officials weren't the only ones to surprise the audience with data.

Jablonski presented one chart showing that the city population has risen from 8,500 people in 1999 to more than 10,000 people in 2014, while the average daily water demand has actually dropped from a high of almost 1.2 million gallons average daily demand in 2006 to less than 1 million gallons a day in 2014.

Jablonski attributed the decrease to new construction standards and the advent of water-saving appliances such as low-flow toilets and an awareness of the need to save the resource.

Because of the drought, the city asked DOE earlier this year for permission to raise the level of Lords Lake reservoir. The DOE approved that request and Lords Lake now has an additional 70 million gallons of additional storage for 2015.

MILL USE, DISCREPANCY

Historically, the Port Townsend Paper Corp. has used as much as 15 million gallons of water a day from the same source as the city - the Big Quilcene and Little Quilcene rivers, which feed Lords Lake and then, City Lake.

Kevin Scott, director of sustainability for PT Paper, told the crowd that water use is down to about 9 million gallons a day.

And while the mill is a big water user, Scott said the mill also recycles every gallon it uses up to seven times. An intern from the University of Washington currently is working on ways to further reduce water waste, he said.

After Jablonski and Scott spoke, several people wondered aloud why the two were using different water-consumption numbers: Jablonski presented a water demand change showing the mill has used up to 12 million gallons a day while Scott insists the mill use is down to about 9 million gallons a day.

One woman asked where the 3-million-gallon difference had gone.

Jablonski said the mill and the city are in the process of looking at the calibrations of their water meters to figure that out.

OUT IN THE COUNTY

Bill Graham, PUD water resource manager, talked about a new well in the Sparling wellfield that is expected to produce enough water to serve the Cape George and Beckett Point areas soon. The new well means that area, with about 400 households, would be off city water and on well water.

Like others, Graham showed charts that indicated the rainfall trend since 2008 indicates less rain year after year, a possible impact of global warming.

Graham was the first speaker to mention the "blob" of warm water in the Pacific Ocean that is keeping the Pacific Northwest warmer than usual. He ended his presentation asking questions about whether that blob will continue, whether a strong El Nino will set up the Northwest for another dry winter as well as questions about how connecting the third well in the Sparling wellfield could impact the water table.

Susan Porto of Jefferson County Environmental Health noted that Jefferson County has created an incentive program for people on private septic systems to obtain a free on-site inspection where they also learn how much water they are consuming.

Excessive use of water has been known to cause septic failures.

"If you over use water and have leaks then you can fail your septic system," Porto said.

Cindy Jayne of

Local 20/20 shared that 12020.org has information about climate action and drought information.

Every speaker talked about the need for people to learn how much water they consume and how they can save, not just because of this year's "historic" drought, but because it's possible this year's drought may not be the last Washington faces in the coming years.

Fish need help

The Jamestown S'Klallam tribe is looking for volunteers to help place sandbags, if necessary, on the Dungeness River in Clallam County to create deeper channels when salmon start to spawn.

Anyone interested can contact Aaron Brooks at abrooks@jamestowntribe.org or360-582-5784.make it line up the caps height at the top, and the baseline at the bottom.

Water users: It's the rule of thirds

Roughly one-third of the population of Jefferson County gets water from the City of Port Townsend.

Another third of the population uses ground water provided by public and private water utilities, said Bill Graham, water resource manager for Jefferson County Public Utility District at a forum on the drought July 14 in Chimacum.

Finally, about one-third of the people in Jefferson County use ground water provided by wells.