Water use in Jefferson County

290 points of diversion — 0.5% of the Kansas file — reporting 5,624 acre-feet in 2023.

290Points

5,6242023, acre-feet

7,402Acres irrigated

127Reporting use

What the series actually shows — Jefferson County

Reported use here peaked in 1999 at 12,482 acre-feet and bottomed in 2009 at 1,895. 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 4,301 acre-feet a year against 4,348 in the first ten — lower. And the number of points reporting any use moved from 63 to 127: the count of straws in the ground barely changes, whatever the year does to the volume.

Reported use in Jefferson 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	3,277	1,293	63
1991	4,505	2,614	83
1992	2,555	1,512	65
1993	2,570	451	56
1994	4,640	2,753	81
1995	2,752	1,845	68
1996	3,270	2,486	81
1997	4,320	3,371	89
1998	3,110	3,229	79
1999	12,482	3,043	85
2000	5,112	3,208	81
2001	3,676	3,314	82
2002	4,652	3,503	86
2003	5,260	3,956	88
2004	2,595	2,759	70
2005	3,688	3,927	82
2006	4,828	4,442	92
2007	4,381	4,981	94
2008	3,413	4,647	84
2009	1,895	3,091	71
2010	3,049	4,790	90
2011	4,688	5,066	92
2012	6,157	5,214	99
2013	4,392	5,936	102
2014	4,652	6,361	112
2015	2,860	6,040	109
2016	3,641	7,041	117
2017	3,612	7,189	118
2018	5,784	7,325	127
2019	2,730	6,428	113
2020	3,791	7,113	121
2021	4,189	7,627	122
2022	6,124	7,634	126
2023	5,624	7,402	127

Where the water comes from

Source	Points	Share
groundwater — a well	212	73.1%
surface water — a river, stream or reservoir	78	26.9%

Which management district

District	Points	Share
Outside any district	290	100.0%

⚠️ What a zero here does not mean

163 of the 290 points in Jefferson County report 0 acre-feet for 2023, and 245 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 Jefferson County?

290 points of diversion sit in Jefferson County, reporting 5,624 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

Jefferson 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
41833	Jefferson	surface	432	155	0	10
87613	Jefferson	surface	344	113	0	30
62354	Jefferson	ground	307	196	0	11
596	Jefferson	ground	300	225	0	9
83550	Jefferson	surface	256	137	0	27
21474	Jefferson	ground	166	98	0	6
72037	Jefferson	ground	113	93	200	16
20014	Jefferson	ground	113	11	0	33
73180	Jefferson	surface	103	72	281	17
61568	Jefferson	ground	102	93	0	8
69593	Jefferson	ground	93	71	260	14
71388	Jefferson	ground	91	51	150	15
79110	Jefferson	ground	82	31	67	22
82224	Jefferson	ground	75	47	99	23
78283	Jefferson	ground	73	37	100	23
29843	Jefferson	ground	72	14	0	29
69865	Jefferson	ground	68	58	105	14
30159	Jefferson	ground	66	56	164	4
82394	Jefferson	surface	62	61	314	24
81133	Jefferson	ground	61	64	163	23
7999	Jefferson	surface	60	40	0	2
8638	Jefferson	ground	55	43	124	2
69918	Jefferson	ground	55	23	90	14
85854	Jefferson	ground	54	36	160	27
41184	Jefferson	ground	54	93	0	3
72485	Jefferson	ground	53	34	107	16
82404	Jefferson	ground	52	41	35	23
82647	Jefferson	ground	51	34	140	25
33379	Jefferson	ground	51	36	100	7
69592	Jefferson	ground	51	23	52	14
35798	Jefferson	ground	50	43	137	2
47808	Jefferson	ground	48	32	108	6
64218	Jefferson	ground	48	33	109	10
80953	Jefferson	surface	48	37	135	24
86162	Jefferson	ground	45	40	0	27
80952	Jefferson	ground	44	25	85	24
60220	Jefferson	ground	44	26	100	7
26263	Jefferson	ground	44	18	36	1
87053	Jefferson	ground	43	19	120	28
67774	Jefferson	ground	43	33	145	14
49511	Jefferson	ground	43	20	62	1
32432	Jefferson	ground	40	70	0	1
83625	Jefferson	surface	40	14	78	26
72406	Jefferson	ground	39	37	115	16
17676	Jefferson	surface	38	31	35	0
84154	Jefferson	ground	36	14	79	25
41931	Jefferson	ground	36	16	144	11
40257	Jefferson	ground	35	15	83	2
83261	Jefferson	ground	34	24	120	25
81410	Jefferson	ground	33	14	42	24
81927	Jefferson	ground	33	29	100	24
89408	Jefferson	surface	33	3	0	33
69864	Jefferson	ground	32	36	21	14
35617	Jefferson	ground	32	30	140	2
3392	Jefferson	ground	31	29	83	1
79505	Jefferson	ground	31	35	120	23
36783	Jefferson	surface	30	21	86	4
22514	Jefferson	ground	30	17	0	1
81131	Jefferson	ground	29	19	80	25
43805	Jefferson	ground	28	16	50	3
31547	Jefferson	ground	28	17	0	3
66745	Jefferson	ground	27	18	82	14
62198	Jefferson	ground	27	27	72	8
41674	Jefferson	ground	27	21	45	10
17218	Jefferson	ground	27	32	88	6
83674	Jefferson	ground	27	19	0	24
76859	Jefferson	ground	26	19	120	20
22803	Jefferson	ground	26	39	0	2
84237	Jefferson	ground	25	29	62	26
88390	Jefferson	ground	25	18	97	31
47135	Jefferson	ground	23	17	0	1
16083	Jefferson	ground	23	25	0	0
84196	Jefferson	ground	23	9	62	27
53041	Jefferson	ground	22	27	0	0
68341	Jefferson	ground	22	26	14	13
72543	Jefferson	ground	22	17	70	16
43540	Jefferson	ground	21	30	103	3
79403	Jefferson	ground	21	17	82	23
81884	Jefferson	ground	20	17	50	23
15643	Jefferson	ground	20	18	84	2
67772	Jefferson	ground	20	17	55	15
72424	Jefferson	ground	19	21	97	16
62145	Jefferson	ground	18	16	40	8
66746	Jefferson	ground	18	17	89	15
5252	Jefferson	ground	18	25	0	5
78308	Jefferson	surface	18	15	75	28
5411	Jefferson	ground	17	47	58	1
18413	Jefferson	ground	17	14	84	2
41114	Jefferson	ground	16	13	11	4
18298	Jefferson	ground	16	29	45	2
78791	Jefferson	ground	16	7	56	22
81414	Jefferson	ground	16	8	62	27
80444	Jefferson	ground	15	8	0	23
80800	Jefferson	ground	15	27	151	23
66421	Jefferson	ground	15	14	10	11
31143	Jefferson	ground	14	5	35	15
14344	Jefferson	ground	14	12	0	0
9770	Jefferson	ground	13	13	0	6
80101	Jefferson	ground	13	13	63	22
36058	Jefferson	surface	13	8	0	4
63436	Jefferson	ground	12	6	25	10
73491	Jefferson	ground	12	15	37	17
83923	Jefferson	ground	12	9	60	26
7995	Jefferson	ground	11	20	0	8
80008	Jefferson	ground	11	23	0	23
2968	Jefferson	ground	11	10	0	1
39901	Jefferson	surface	10	2	10	14
87747	Jefferson	ground	9	1	0	33
33510	Jefferson	ground	9	27	60	2
66476	Jefferson	ground	8	14	0	12
79283	Jefferson	ground	8	9	41	22
42777	Jefferson	ground	7	9	46	1
3933	Jefferson	ground	7	4	0	1
84851	Jefferson	ground	7	6	0	26
76491	Jefferson	ground	6	6	5	19
4326	Jefferson	ground	5	6	0	1
20527	Jefferson	ground	4	16	0	3
8181	Jefferson	ground	3	2	0	1
62944	Jefferson	ground	3	2	10	8
44029	Jefferson	ground	3	5	18	2

Counties with a comparable file

Lane 334
Wabaunsee 312
Osborne 311
Douglas 310
Marion 298
Johnson 297
Smith 293
Barber 289
Rooks 284
Mitchell 274
Ness 274
Geary 261
Nemaha 247

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.