Water use in Greeley County

367 points of diversion — 0.6% of the Kansas file — reporting 11,163 acre-feet in 2023.

367Points

11,1632023, acre-feet

16,969Acres irrigated

155Reporting use

What the series actually shows — Greeley County

Reported use here peaked in 1990 at 44,184 acre-feet and bottomed in 2023 at 11,163. 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 15,722 acre-feet a year against 32,964 in the first ten — lower. And the number of points reporting any use moved from 244 to 155: the count of straws in the ground barely changes, whatever the year does to the volume.

Reported use in Greeley 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	44,184	27,344	244
1991	40,584	27,211	239
1992	34,564	28,347	238
1993	29,243	26,874	243
1994	35,107	27,044	241
1995	28,818	28,424	224
1996	33,082	29,743	233
1997	28,928	28,997	234
1998	28,398	30,627	227
1999	26,737	29,868	230
2000	32,553	29,703	223
2001	30,552	28,684	225
2002	34,678	29,354	225
2003	29,384	28,560	221
2004	23,423	27,328	208
2005	22,038	26,228	195
2006	25,528	24,592	186
2007	23,233	23,287	180
2008	24,276	23,762	182
2009	21,458	21,525	177
2010	19,695	21,427	181
2011	23,717	21,923	184
2012	26,736	21,104	183
2013	22,210	22,035	186
2014	20,597	20,246	176
2015	16,972	19,412	175
2016	14,646	18,463	171
2017	12,974	17,900	165
2018	16,542	17,896	165
2019	12,202	17,632	155
2020	17,677	16,647	162
2021	15,717	18,224	160
2022	18,732	17,107	159
2023	11,163	16,969	155

Where the water comes from

Source	Points	Share
groundwater — a well	366	99.7%
surface water — a river, stream or reservoir	1	0.3%

Which management district

District	Points	Share
Western Kansas GMD 1	345	94.0%
Outside any district	22	6.0%

⚠️ What a zero here does not mean

212 of the 367 points in Greeley County report 0 acre-feet for 2023, and 242 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 Greeley County?

367 points of diversion sit in Greeley County, reporting 11,163 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

Greeley 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
25543	Greeley	ground	245	262	232	0
31581	Greeley	ground	237	150	120	0
1494	Greeley	ground	231	197	263	0
53284	Greeley	ground	223	281	240	0
26523	Greeley	ground	199	218	283	0
30037	Greeley	ground	193	149	0	2
50246	Greeley	ground	191	182	360	1
39660	Greeley	ground	183	183	123	0
28515	Greeley	ground	182	189	120	1
12590	Greeley	ground	171	236	240	0
53810	Greeley	ground	166	221	232	0
2341	Greeley	ground	163	175	0	0
19436	Greeley	ground	155	229	120	0
19811	Greeley	ground	154	155	215	0
15050	Greeley	ground	151	196	211	1
33357	Greeley	ground	149	162	200	0
32710	Greeley	ground	149	167	242	1
54052	Greeley	ground	147	160	125	0
13248	Greeley	ground	144	179	122	0
55012	Greeley	ground	141	157	185	2
26654	Greeley	ground	135	180	181	1
48595	Greeley	ground	133	175	232	3
16578	Greeley	ground	132	163	240	0
35061	Greeley	ground	131	187	250	0
34196	Greeley	ground	131	153	176	18
41484	Greeley	ground	126	139	125	0
73242	Greeley	ground	123	126	0	17
20728	Greeley	ground	117	113	125	8
1868	Greeley	ground	116	142	166	1
85784	Greeley	ground	112	109	340	26
52931	Greeley	ground	111	221	360	0
38069	Greeley	ground	110	182	120	0
11568	Greeley	ground	105	222	206	0
3614	Greeley	ground	98	150	123	1
55014	Greeley	ground	96	100	120	4
84557	Greeley	ground	94	123	185	25
4938	Greeley	ground	93	138	124	1
36029	Greeley	ground	91	140	120	0
928	Greeley	ground	91	79	127	0
31462	Greeley	ground	91	102	137	0
47045	Greeley	ground	90	124	124	0
8332	Greeley	ground	89	121	123	1
30569	Greeley	ground	88	79	105	1
23553	Greeley	ground	87	61	120	1
10185	Greeley	ground	85	115	110	10
7476	Greeley	ground	83	147	120	0
1282	Greeley	ground	82	98	120	0
43209	Greeley	ground	78	199	153	0
617	Greeley	ground	78	146	0	0
34197	Greeley	ground	78	128	163	1
10353	Greeley	ground	77	122	141	0
13072	Greeley	ground	77	146	240	0
60047	Greeley	ground	77	34	123	29
52437	Greeley	ground	76	45	125	2
3514	Greeley	ground	75	60	0	1
79336	Greeley	ground	75	110	0	22
6450	Greeley	ground	74	76	174	0
26351	Greeley	ground	74	100	111	0
22505	Greeley	ground	73	80	125	0
6690	Greeley	ground	73	126	170	0
24744	Greeley	ground	72	91	120	0
1858	Greeley	ground	72	29	67	23
44869	Greeley	ground	72	102	127	1
48737	Greeley	ground	72	52	0	4
25597	Greeley	ground	71	45	100	0
19293	Greeley	ground	70	51	240	1
50340	Greeley	ground	70	206	145	6
84878	Greeley	ground	70	28	125	25
79340	Greeley	ground	69	62	0	22
32900	Greeley	ground	67	99	156	0
17973	Greeley	ground	66	164	129	0
25023	Greeley	ground	66	74	193	0
5974	Greeley	ground	65	69	78	1
24141	Greeley	ground	65	71	111	0
41784	Greeley	ground	64	79	120	0
10919	Greeley	ground	64	97	120	1
60046	Greeley	ground	64	78	123	7
3810	Greeley	ground	62	115	120	1
2062	Greeley	ground	62	92	0	4
40604	Greeley	ground	61	56	271	1
65388	Greeley	ground	60	55	0	10
42677	Greeley	ground	60	129	250	0
50471	Greeley	ground	59	86	120	0
50308	Greeley	ground	58	93	250	1
86472	Greeley	ground	58	40	0	28
89107	Greeley	ground	57	11	53	31
47412	Greeley	ground	56	63	67	0
52407	Greeley	ground	56	54	0	1
30122	Greeley	ground	54	133	126	0
48405	Greeley	ground	53	71	125	0
35025	Greeley	ground	52	67	74	0
33942	Greeley	ground	51	67	153	1
2998	Greeley	ground	49	89	125	2
30658	Greeley	ground	49	97	125	2
12959	Greeley	ground	49	54	0	0
6479	Greeley	ground	49	70	77	1
3405	Greeley	ground	48	126	240	1
18260	Greeley	ground	48	62	64	18
51553	Greeley	ground	48	34	120	23
39451	Greeley	ground	48	52	80	0
41706	Greeley	ground	48	110	105	0
30224	Greeley	ground	47	45	80	0
69788	Greeley	ground	47	43	0	15
7541	Greeley	ground	47	36	105	4
44733	Greeley	ground	46	58	100	0
79338	Greeley	ground	46	66	0	22
51042	Greeley	ground	45	58	74	1
6731	Greeley	ground	45	78	68	5
21117	Greeley	ground	42	146	120	1
2867	Greeley	ground	41	56	183	0
34508	Greeley	ground	41	155	120	0
40800	Greeley	ground	39	39	0	1
84377	Greeley	ground	38	33	125	25
14141	Greeley	ground	37	64	57	1
51453	Greeley	ground	36	53	125	9
4033	Greeley	ground	36	121	120	8
80118	Greeley	ground	36	47	76	22
35828	Greeley	ground	35	41	54	11
71283	Greeley	ground	32	42	0	15
79337	Greeley	ground	32	32	0	22

Counties with a comparable file

Dickinson 468
Ottawa 467
Decatur 418
Brown 404
Rawlins 400
Cowley 394
Graham 379
Marshall 359
Trego 352
Riley 347
Lane 334
Wabaunsee 312
Osborne 311

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.