Water use in Clay County

654 points of diversion — 1.1% of the Kansas file — reporting 20,549 acre-feet in 2023.

654Points

20,5492023, acre-feet

29,996Acres irrigated

307Reporting use

What the series actually shows — Clay County

Reported use here peaked in 1991 at 24,309 acre-feet and bottomed in 1993 at 3,589. That swing is rainfall, not policy: a wet year needs less pumping than a dry one, and any two years picked from this table can be made to say almost anything.

Comparing decades instead: the last ten years average 16,068 acre-feet a year against 15,197 in the first ten — higher. And the number of points reporting any use moved from 228 to 307: the count of straws in the ground barely changes, whatever the year does to the volume.

Reported use in Clay County, year by year. « Points reporting » counts those returning more than nought — a 0 is not a finding, see below.
Year	Acre-feet	Acres irrigated	Points reporting
1990	17,470	16,602	228
1991	24,309	17,551	236
1992	7,534	15,385	204
1993	3,589	9,536	136
1994	14,393	17,354	235
1995	16,652	18,559	245
1996	15,783	18,608	260
1997	19,625	20,683	262
1998	15,762	20,299	257
1999	16,855	21,248	270
2000	23,704	21,573	272
2001	19,862	21,375	263
2002	24,112	21,807	265
2003	21,961	22,289	268
2004	16,394	22,531	277
2005	15,406	22,749	274
2006	17,656	20,658	264
2007	17,677	23,107	273
2008	12,698	22,910	265
2009	12,627	23,396	274
2010	10,672	22,710	270
2011	12,156	24,448	273
2012	23,121	25,313	280
2013	16,325	25,392	288
2014	16,782	26,986	287
2015	14,279	27,389	295
2016	14,106	27,628	296
2017	19,981	28,609	312
2018	15,260	28,489	316
2019	6,464	23,965	262
2020	11,921	27,682	295
2021	21,313	31,054	326
2022	20,028	30,659	318
2023	20,549	29,996	307

Where the water comes from

Source	Points	Share
groundwater — a well	428	65.4%
surface water — a river, stream or reservoir	226	34.6%

Which management district

District	Points	Share
Outside any district	654	100.0%

⚠️ What a zero here does not mean

347 of the 654 points in Clay County report 0 acre-feet for 2023, and 460 show five or more successive years at 0 in this file.

A 0 in this file is not a finding. There are no blanks in the usage columns — every point carries a number for every year — so a nil return, a point that did not yet exist, and a report never filed all read the same. Kansas fines non-filing (USD 250 per file, USD 1,000 and suspension after 1 June), which is exactly why a missing report looks like a quiet year.

Kansas does terminate a water right after five successive years without beneficial use — K.S.A. 82a-718 — but only without due and sufficient cause, and only after a hearing before the chief engineer with 30 days’ notice. Four causes are recognised in K.A.R. 5-7-1, including adequate rainfall and water being unavailable at the source, and enrolment in the water rights conservation programme counts as one. A run of zeros here is a reason to check, never a conclusion.

Buying or defending irrigated ground in Clay County?

654 points of diversion sit in Clay County, reporting 20,549 acre-feet in 2023. What a right is actually worth turns on how much it has been used and on whether it can be defended — questions this site cannot answer for a particular file. Tell us where and we pass the request to Kansas water lawyers and consultants.

We recommend nobody and we are nobody's agent. We have no arrangement with any firm today — we are collecting these requests in order to go and find them. What we do with this.

The points, largest first

Clay County, ordered by reported use in 2023. The last column counts the longest run of years at 0 in this file — a fact about the file, not a finding about the right.
Point	County	Source	2023 (AF)	10-yr avg	Acres 2023	Longest run of 0
78161	Clay	surface	971	324	0	23
66552	Clay	surface	465	283	0	12
3160	Clay	ground	457	267	0	1
76704	Clay	surface	384	214	224	19
72119	Clay	surface	347	206	0	20
4786	Clay	ground	246	149	310	1
66064	Clay	surface	218	74	427	11
28998	Clay	surface	212	128	191	4
72120	Clay	surface	207	113	0	19
5512	Clay	ground	193	120	0	1
87226	Clay	surface	190	23	355	32
19701	Clay	ground	188	114	0	1
9644	Clay	ground	176	118	126	0
37372	Clay	ground	173	109	174	1
39230	Clay	ground	171	93	100	7
32684	Clay	ground	167	118	139	0
51500	Clay	ground	164	116	180	1
3697	Clay	ground	160	65	167	1
39701	Clay	ground	158	85	136	1
18120	Clay	ground	156	192	0	2
86328	Clay	ground	151	80	256	28
36618	Clay	ground	149	86	140	1
19062	Clay	ground	145	79	117	0
37612	Clay	ground	143	92	240	2
83590	Clay	ground	138	78	363	24
35614	Clay	ground	135	96	198	1
10082	Clay	surface	133	43	189	2
71281	Clay	ground	133	29	6	16
7237	Clay	ground	132	80	130	2
20306	Clay	ground	132	79	140	0
41245	Clay	ground	131	56	195	1
54543	Clay	ground	125	69	90	1
87984	Clay	ground	124	43	210	30
16514	Clay	ground	124	72	90	0
19809	Clay	ground	123	64	130	0
53011	Clay	ground	123	61	120	0
27442	Clay	ground	122	82	120	0
21903	Clay	ground	121	77	146	0
15404	Clay	ground	115	64	120	0
29872	Clay	ground	115	234	0	0
27697	Clay	ground	114	78	140	1
66704	Clay	ground	113	62	520	12
5015	Clay	ground	113	58	140	2
21749	Clay	ground	112	56	168	1
2838	Clay	ground	111	95	105	0
76591	Clay	ground	110	60	159	19
26406	Clay	ground	110	58	120	0
30479	Clay	ground	110	65	141	1
62600	Clay	ground	109	66	165	8
23422	Clay	ground	109	67	88	0
15948	Clay	ground	108	69	133	0
69600	Clay	ground	108	45	160	13
18287	Clay	ground	106	75	279	2
45755	Clay	ground	105	71	128	1
82536	Clay	surface	104	39	178	28
84181	Clay	ground	99	46	135	26
20071	Clay	ground	98	40	68	1
42145	Clay	ground	98	79	220	5
18491	Clay	ground	98	71	155	0
27142	Clay	ground	98	36	156	3
38913	Clay	ground	97	69	120	0
29592	Clay	ground	97	63	96	0
26221	Clay	ground	95	67	0	3
39348	Clay	ground	95	52	110	1
45238	Clay	ground	94	44	130	1
19882	Clay	ground	93	64	175	1
34503	Clay	ground	93	55	117	1
39748	Clay	ground	92	49	112	1
12843	Clay	ground	91	50	98	1
44996	Clay	surface	90	120	702	10
36301	Clay	ground	89	21	130	2
16309	Clay	ground	88	32	108	2
76077	Clay	ground	88	62	130	18
36970	Clay	ground	88	59	155	1
34321	Clay	ground	88	61	120	0
12880	Clay	ground	88	64	140	1
11484	Clay	ground	86	45	73	0
41637	Clay	ground	86	61	92	0
33065	Clay	ground	85	59	144	0
47056	Clay	ground	84	49	130	0
12394	Clay	ground	84	52	100	4
32836	Clay	ground	83	50	112	1
16198	Clay	ground	83	46	76	1
47947	Clay	ground	83	58	108	1
33778	Clay	ground	82	49	120	0
41947	Clay	ground	82	79	120	3
29617	Clay	ground	82	38	110	1
26358	Clay	ground	82	53	68	0
66496	Clay	surface	81	69	221	12
17286	Clay	ground	81	45	80	1
14165	Clay	ground	81	69	175	1
9307	Clay	ground	81	58	106	0
38121	Clay	ground	81	57	136	1
16858	Clay	ground	80	54	130	1
23758	Clay	ground	80	47	85	1
84549	Clay	ground	79	19	135	31
50636	Clay	ground	79	63	120	0
19970	Clay	ground	79	49	137	1
20976	Clay	surface	79	25	130	17
34326	Clay	surface	79	39	130	2
66322	Clay	surface	78	95	48	12
17331	Clay	ground	78	47	135	1
45858	Clay	ground	76	43	70	2
41397	Clay	ground	76	56	130	1
41023	Clay	ground	75	62	110	1
81551	Clay	ground	75	59	120	23
32641	Clay	ground	75	44	90	3
54627	Clay	ground	75	50	105	1
10394	Clay	ground	75	51	0	2
725	Clay	ground	75	65	141	1
18764	Clay	ground	75	64	90	0
49774	Clay	ground	74	46	80	1
49501	Clay	ground	73	56	119	0
22015	Clay	ground	73	55	135	0
38787	Clay	ground	73	56	90	0
62349	Clay	ground	71	37	108	9
70263	Clay	ground	71	36	77	14
1180	Clay	ground	70	36	60	0
48010	Clay	ground	70	43	101	1
1088	Clay	ground	67	68	110	1

By source in Clay County

Counties with a comparable file

Sumner 785
Rice 752
Republic 721
Hodgeman 700
Cloud 685
Cheyenne 676
Washington 663
Phillips 637
Pottawatomie 636
Wallace 621
Morton 601
Shawnee 601
Kingman 599

Neighbours by the size of their file, not a ranking: the list slides with the county, so each of the 73 county pages is reachable from the others. All of them.