How this site is built

An independent copy of one public file. Not affiliated with the Kansas Geological Survey or the Division of Water Resources of the Kansas Department of Agriculture.

One file, 59,615 points

the Kansas Geological Survey publishes Kansas water use as an open feature service, compiled from the annual reports the Division of Water Resources of the Kansas Department of Agriculture collects. Our copy is from 2026-08-22.

⚠️ The service ships each point twice, and adding them doubles the water

The layer returns 91,547 rows for 59,615 points. Every duplicated point carries two rows whose annual figures are identical — zero conflicts across all thirty-four years — differing only in a link field and a breakdown column. Summing the raw rows gives 8,965,378 acre-feet for 2023; the real figure is 4,482,689, exactly half. We merge field by field, preferring the populated value.

Anyone downloading this layer and summing it will double the water use of Kansas without any warning that they have.

⚠️ Three things this site refuses to conclude

That a zero means no water was used. There are no blanks in the usage columns, so a nil return and a missing report look identical. The full explanation.

That a run of zeros means a right is abandoned. Kansas law requires the absence of due and sufficient cause and a hearing before the chief engineer.

That use is rising or falling. Comparing two years is meaningless on a series that swings 40% with rainfall. What the series actually shows.

What we add

County names. The source carries two-letter abbreviations only. We resolve all 105 against the publisher's own county table, with no unresolved codes.

The series, rendered. Thirty-four annual figures per point, on one page, with each year against that point's own peak.

Counts of consecutive zero years, named as a fact about the file rather than a diagnosis.

⚠️ What is not downloaded

The coordinates. A point of diversion sits on a parcel; the county and the district are enough for a page, and a map of who irrigates what is not what this site is for.

How the pages are chosen

A county gets a page at 200 points (73 of 105 qualify, covering 92.3%); every district gets one; every year from 1990 to 2023 gets one. A county-and-source page needs 150 points and must not cover more than 70% of its county — otherwise it is the county page again.

Source and conditions

Kansas water use, the Kansas Geological Survey. Their terms permit copying and redistribution without fee and require a citation, quoted word for word:

This is an independent copy, not the register. The Survey recommends that its data be taken directly from a KGS server rather than through another site that may have changed it — for anything a transaction depends on, use theirs.