Water use in Hamilton County

525 points of diversion — 0.9% of the Kansas file — reporting 43,343 acre-feet in 2023.

525Points

43,3432023, acre-feet

31,659Acres irrigated

228Reporting use

What the series actually shows — Hamilton County

Reported use here peaked in 1991 at 58,201 acre-feet and bottomed in 2005 at 37,717. 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 45,789 acre-feet a year against 47,851 in the first ten — lower. And the number of points reporting any use moved from 234 to 228: the count of straws in the ground barely changes, whatever the year does to the volume.

Reported use in Hamilton 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	56,559	29,841	234
1991	58,201	29,561	224
1992	47,760	29,974	211
1993	42,011	29,132	225
1994	49,292	29,001	210
1995	51,668	30,247	209
1996	40,092	27,425	209
1997	45,003	30,328	225
1998	44,017	34,226	237
1999	43,909	31,950	227
2000	51,474	31,478	244
2001	41,383	30,206	227
2002	55,955	32,537	235
2003	46,957	32,225	239
2004	43,735	30,805	239
2005	37,717	29,948	237
2006	45,053	28,378	230
2007	43,474	28,517	226
2008	49,414	31,335	240
2009	45,428	31,390	242
2010	48,277	31,341	235
2011	56,615	30,121	239
2012	52,601	31,252	250
2013	52,257	35,285	239
2014	48,356	34,585	245
2015	45,063	35,298	244
2016	47,829	35,344	240
2017	38,442	38,131	232
2018	41,426	31,080	232
2019	41,902	37,046	216
2020	51,806	31,748	216
2021	48,018	35,310	226
2022	51,705	32,473	228
2023	43,343	31,659	228

Where the water comes from

Source	Points	Share
groundwater — a well	517	98.5%
surface water — a river, stream or reservoir	8	1.5%

Which management district

District	Points	Share
Outside any district	337	64.2%
Southwest Kansas GMD 3	188	35.8%

⚠️ What a zero here does not mean

297 of the 525 points in Hamilton County report 0 acre-feet for 2023, and 403 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 Hamilton County?

525 points of diversion sit in Hamilton County, reporting 43,343 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

Hamilton 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
3177	Hamilton	surface	3,568	3,417	2,544	1
37960	Hamilton	surface	1,946	1,919	2,544	0
15601	Hamilton	ground	678	292	211	10
88492	Hamilton	ground	652	218	409	30
89335	Hamilton	ground	637	121	210	32
84537	Hamilton	ground	498	193	246	25
32169	Hamilton	ground	477	326	246	1
77005	Hamilton	ground	470	357	246	19
44227	Hamilton	ground	449	332	341	8
84385	Hamilton	ground	448	453	246	25
84881	Hamilton	ground	442	297	417	25
16590	Hamilton	ground	429	407	220	0
80329	Hamilton	ground	419	381	246	22
14644	Hamilton	ground	416	392	315	1
37739	Hamilton	ground	400	361	123	1
77688	Hamilton	ground	387	382	320	20
72163	Hamilton	ground	382	340	0	15
52588	Hamilton	ground	363	343	225	1
79581	Hamilton	ground	363	480	338	22
39498	Hamilton	ground	362	459	500	0
86194	Hamilton	ground	356	252	246	27
21452	Hamilton	ground	355	398	269	5
80398	Hamilton	ground	339	284	240	22
23391	Hamilton	ground	330	439	251	8
44904	Hamilton	ground	329	251	0	0
69539	Hamilton	ground	320	331	243	14
13348	Hamilton	ground	315	207	120	1
6527	Hamilton	ground	314	262	241	22
44056	Hamilton	ground	313	369	250	1
46502	Hamilton	ground	313	268	0	0
70361	Hamilton	ground	311	313	320	14
71082	Hamilton	ground	311	302	236	15
23077	Hamilton	ground	305	284	320	0
50857	Hamilton	ground	305	172	231	0
67036	Hamilton	ground	301	338	186	12
90625	Hamilton	ground	294	29	0	33
39556	Hamilton	ground	293	171	100	1
41869	Hamilton	ground	293	295	200	0
52400	Hamilton	ground	293	263	123	1
45546	Hamilton	ground	292	274	244	0
22065	Hamilton	ground	278	119	158	0
19304	Hamilton	ground	274	246	130	0
84319	Hamilton	ground	272	240	123	25
90647	Hamilton	ground	268	27	190	33
86991	Hamilton	ground	266	131	123	29
44906	Hamilton	ground	262	254	210	0
71474	Hamilton	ground	260	299	0	15
7843	Hamilton	ground	257	431	239	0
69654	Hamilton	ground	252	365	304	13
24285	Hamilton	ground	250	264	111	1
62983	Hamilton	ground	250	295	190	8
36353	Hamilton	ground	248	276	145	4
74822	Hamilton	ground	247	476	180	18
83396	Hamilton	ground	247	213	187	24
73556	Hamilton	ground	246	269	318	17
52057	Hamilton	ground	234	236	130	0
90586	Hamilton	ground	232	23	123	33
14288	Hamilton	ground	231	122	165	2
5303	Hamilton	ground	231	190	250	0
73566	Hamilton	ground	230	239	0	17
27661	Hamilton	ground	229	365	183	2
80523	Hamilton	ground	228	235	123	23
84371	Hamilton	ground	227	163	175	25
75760	Hamilton	ground	225	196	246	18
4809	Hamilton	ground	223	195	171	18
14657	Hamilton	ground	223	233	130	0
19998	Hamilton	ground	223	253	267	2
63320	Hamilton	ground	222	347	0	11
76314	Hamilton	ground	220	46	167	19
80947	Hamilton	ground	220	248	123	23
88235	Hamilton	ground	220	90	123	30
27356	Hamilton	ground	217	246	136	0
84488	Hamilton	ground	216	193	123	25
87668	Hamilton	ground	213	112	123	29
32969	Hamilton	ground	211	150	150	0
23744	Hamilton	ground	208	335	296	6
48015	Hamilton	ground	207	179	125	1
89820	Hamilton	ground	200	35	0	32
20901	Hamilton	ground	199	214	122	0
22433	Hamilton	ground	199	128	220	0
15173	Hamilton	ground	198	177	130	6
20799	Hamilton	ground	198	192	130	3
79347	Hamilton	ground	197	271	110	21
5510	Hamilton	ground	196	413	280	1
15481	Hamilton	ground	195	255	125	0
20535	Hamilton	ground	195	258	136	0
68475	Hamilton	ground	193	118	120	13
7778	Hamilton	ground	192	212	130	1
49635	Hamilton	ground	191	193	147	22
66384	Hamilton	ground	191	221	140	11
72895	Hamilton	ground	191	111	111	17
49430	Hamilton	ground	190	164	125	0
32783	Hamilton	ground	189	157	145	22
75878	Hamilton	ground	188	193	111	18
69537	Hamilton	ground	184	212	130	13
25393	Hamilton	ground	183	172	99	1
82245	Hamilton	ground	180	162	125	24
36120	Hamilton	ground	179	149	125	0
15917	Hamilton	ground	178	277	120	3
26962	Hamilton	ground	177	184	97	0
46208	Hamilton	ground	177	106	120	3
33551	Hamilton	ground	175	201	130	1
17381	Hamilton	ground	174	197	130	0
30509	Hamilton	ground	174	166	190	2
51125	Hamilton	ground	172	224	125	0
7814	Hamilton	ground	171	164	250	2
67289	Hamilton	ground	169	119	99	12
15561	Hamilton	ground	166	206	220	1
19381	Hamilton	ground	166	197	134	0
81830	Hamilton	ground	166	191	125	23
15496	Hamilton	ground	165	154	150	0
30481	Hamilton	ground	165	220	120	3
74570	Hamilton	ground	165	150	127	18
14313	Hamilton	ground	162	234	124	0
43092	Hamilton	ground	160	149	125	0
22332	Hamilton	ground	160	184	90	0
47243	Hamilton	ground	156	153	126	4
74546	Hamilton	ground	156	182	120	18
13279	Hamilton	ground	154	209	130	0
37055	Hamilton	ground	153	199	130	1

Counties with a comparable file

Morton 601
Shawnee 601
Kingman 599
Rush 558
Gove 554
Kiowa 554
Saline 543
Ellis 500
Butler 472
Dickinson 468
Ottawa 467
Decatur 418
Brown 404

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.