Water use in Ellis County

500 points of diversion — 0.8% of the Kansas file — reporting 5,288 acre-feet in 2023.

500Points

5,2882023, acre-feet

1,721Acres irrigated

145Reporting use

What the series actually shows — Ellis County

Reported use here peaked in 2012 at 6,375 acre-feet and bottomed in 1993 at 2,884. 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 4,348 acre-feet a year against 4,320 in the first ten — higher. And the number of points reporting any use moved from 145 to 145: the count of straws in the ground barely changes, whatever the year does to the volume.

Reported use in Ellis 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	4,639	1,676	145
1991	5,804	1,939	153
1992	3,225	1,222	139
1993	2,884	724	124
1994	4,102	1,502	154
1995	4,338	1,940	149
1996	4,223	1,533	152
1997	4,883	1,912	159
1998	4,719	2,244	145
1999	4,384	2,073	155
2000	5,019	2,374	156
2001	4,378	1,971	147
2002	5,370	2,549	156
2003	5,518	2,090	155
2004	4,900	1,803	152
2005	5,668	1,818	145
2006	5,958	1,981	157
2007	4,204	1,532	141
2008	4,543	1,670	147
2009	4,483	1,606	145
2010	4,934	1,693	152
2011	5,855	2,016	163
2012	6,375	1,954	170
2013	4,667	1,828	164
2014	4,434	1,928	155
2015	4,811	2,516	149
2016	3,967	2,376	147
2017	4,539	2,586	144
2018	3,535	1,266	143
2019	3,347	1,262	133
2020	4,052	1,352	140
2021	4,291	1,642	138
2022	5,211	1,851	144
2023	5,288	1,721	145

Where the water comes from

Source	Points	Share
groundwater — a well	406	81.2%
surface water — a river, stream or reservoir	94	18.8%

Which management district

District	Points	Share
Outside any district	500	100.0%

⚠️ What a zero here does not mean

355 of the 500 points in Ellis County report 0 acre-feet for 2023, and 420 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 Ellis County?

500 points of diversion sit in Ellis County, reporting 5,288 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

Ellis 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
66237	Ellis	ground	389	378	0	15
73536	Ellis	ground	301	105	0	17
37	Ellis	ground	182	73	0	1
54125	Ellis	ground	182	76	0	0
86725	Ellis	surface	154	61	119	30
37583	Ellis	ground	153	65	160	10
28744	Ellis	ground	151	75	0	1
22480	Ellis	ground	134	151	0	0
16315	Ellis	ground	134	58	0	0
39797	Ellis	ground	133	100	0	0
26198	Ellis	surface	129	107	118	8
13883	Ellis	ground	127	102	0	0
51597	Ellis	ground	123	67	0	1
30319	Ellis	ground	121	25	0	5
73535	Ellis	ground	119	116	0	17
25590	Ellis	ground	110	82	0	2
26769	Ellis	ground	96	63	0	2
29856	Ellis	ground	88	40	140	1
32966	Ellis	ground	87	54	0	3
37460	Ellis	ground	86	58	0	1
76355	Ellis	ground	85	77	131	21
78510	Ellis	ground	81	76	63	21
25539	Ellis	ground	80	60	0	1
41207	Ellis	ground	76	73	125	4
89601	Ellis	ground	76	15	76	32
19475	Ellis	ground	72	30	60	2
25250	Ellis	ground	72	41	0	3
655	Ellis	ground	66	83	0	1
80114	Ellis	ground	65	30	60	22
4489	Ellis	ground	61	132	0	1
85786	Ellis	ground	60	37	60	26
74024	Ellis	ground	58	50	0	17
74108	Ellis	ground	58	31	0	17
49705	Ellis	ground	55	56	21	1
4571	Ellis	ground	55	14	0	3
43149	Ellis	ground	53	40	70	1
45122	Ellis	ground	53	40	0	0
76216	Ellis	ground	51	24	0	19
48100	Ellis	ground	49	51	18	0
16147	Ellis	ground	48	37	0	1
9078	Ellis	ground	48	83	0	0
78344	Ellis	ground	46	33	42	21
64996	Ellis	ground	44	35	53	10
73544	Ellis	ground	41	61	0	17
78341	Ellis	ground	39	35	0	21
41754	Ellis	ground	37	64	121	3
66171	Ellis	ground	36	41	28	13
45297	Ellis	ground	35	16	0	4
65076	Ellis	ground	33	11	0	10
61276	Ellis	ground	32	3	0	9
24153	Ellis	ground	31	29	0	5
16805	Ellis	ground	30	21	0	1
46236	Ellis	ground	29	37	26	20
73545	Ellis	ground	29	110	0	17
28340	Ellis	ground	25	16	14	23
85685	Ellis	ground	23	8	0	27
52107	Ellis	ground	22	15	0	0
35873	Ellis	ground	21	8	0	7
88648	Ellis	ground	21	8	0	31
38393	Ellis	surface	18	4	36	2
16080	Ellis	ground	18	12	0	1
9524	Ellis	surface	18	8	18	3
88649	Ellis	ground	18	3	0	31
20280	Ellis	ground	17	13	0	1
20796	Ellis	ground	16	10	0	6
76215	Ellis	ground	14	7	0	19
11474	Ellis	ground	14	17	30	2
39350	Ellis	ground	14	6	0	9
70798	Ellis	ground	13	11	0	14
52296	Ellis	ground	13	9	0	4
16712	Ellis	ground	12	5	0	5
82277	Ellis	ground	11	7	0	23
27457	Ellis	ground	10	53	0	1
17833	Ellis	ground	10	8	0	0
4015	Ellis	ground	9	7	0	0
24319	Ellis	ground	8	39	0	0
73537	Ellis	ground	8	86	0	20
40952	Ellis	ground	8	5	10	0
26512	Ellis	ground	8	18	0	2
77446	Ellis	ground	7	5	10	20
47158	Ellis	ground	7	7	0	1
17317	Ellis	ground	7	7	15	1
17689	Ellis	ground	6	5	0	4
36755	Ellis	ground	6	4	0	1
43020	Ellis	ground	6	7	13	0
14290	Ellis	ground	6	4	3	1
5404	Ellis	ground	6	8	0	7
35207	Ellis	ground	5	5	0	0
72410	Ellis	ground	5	1	0	17
6485	Ellis	ground	4	5	0	13
25790	Ellis	ground	4	2	0	1
11148	Ellis	ground	4	4	0	13
29100	Ellis	ground	4	4	0	0
84242	Ellis	ground	4	2	3	25
33688	Ellis	ground	4	7	7	0
68689	Ellis	ground	4	2	3	13
82188	Ellis	ground	3	2	3	24
82494	Ellis	ground	3	3	0	25
70563	Ellis	ground	3	13	0	14
11567	Ellis	ground	3	17	0	0
22513	Ellis	ground	3	8	0	2
83178	Ellis	ground	2	1	3	24
87685	Ellis	ground	2	1	0	30
22417	Ellis	ground	2	2	2	1
50113	Ellis	ground	2	70	0	3
80326	Ellis	ground	2	2	1	22
72747	Ellis	ground	2	2	0	17
10904	Ellis	ground	1	22	0	3
54040	Ellis	ground	1	7	0	0
51253	Ellis	ground	1	1	0	4
79932	Ellis	ground	1	2	0	23
74109	Ellis	ground	1	11	0	17
1654	Ellis	ground	1	1	0	4
39220	Ellis	ground	1	2	5	5
77626	Ellis	ground	1	3	0	20
85448	Ellis	ground	1	3	0	27
42368	Ellis	ground	1	1	0	0
77193	Ellis	ground	1	1	0	21
85535	Ellis	ground	1	0	0	29
27106	Ellis	ground	1	1	1	1

Counties with a comparable file

Shawnee 601
Kingman 599
Rush 558
Gove 554
Kiowa 554
Saline 543
Hamilton 525
Butler 472
Dickinson 468
Ottawa 467
Decatur 418
Brown 404
Rawlins 400

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.