Water use in Jewell County

222 points of diversion — 0.4% of the Kansas file — reporting 67,781 acre-feet in 2023.

222Points

67,7812023, acre-feet

63,497Acres irrigated

61Reporting use

What the series actually shows — Jewell County

Reported use here peaked in 1990 at 115,997 acre-feet and bottomed in 2021 at 3,682. 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 34,814 acre-feet a year against 74,407 in the first ten — lower. And the number of points reporting any use moved from 66 to 61: the count of straws in the ground barely changes, whatever the year does to the volume.

Reported use in Jewell 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	115,997	3,674	66
1991	85,655	3,741	68
1992	46,874	2,817	55
1993	25,493	6,446	36
1994	57,911	8,880	62
1995	86,485	3,190	62
1996	77,517	17,198	60
1997	80,934	3,371	59
1998	81,915	3,473	60
1999	85,292	3,395	61
2000	102,860	3,948	62
2001	75,002	3,836	67
2002	76,800	11,651	65
2003	62,792	3,942	63
2004	48,774	3,858	57
2005	29,102	27,057	54
2006	49,589	26,692	47
2007	49,137	36,236	47
2008	49,392	38,382	53
2009	60,654	40,070	58
2010	61,290	40,292	56
2011	64,081	41,073	59
2012	88,252	4,014	61
2013	69,689	42,707	58
2014	21,049	31,212	56
2015	34,827	42,767	61
2016	34,055	32,253	65
2017	41,964	43,822	68
2018	35,040	43,879	65
2019	21,858	30,178	54
2020	47,756	44,139	60
2021	3,682	4,415	60
2022	40,129	44,965	58
2023	67,781	63,497	61

Where the water comes from

Source	Points	Share
groundwater — a well	120	54.1%
surface water — a river, stream or reservoir	102	45.9%

Which management district

District	Points	Share
Outside any district	222	100.0%

⚠️ What a zero here does not mean

161 of the 222 points in Jewell County report 0 acre-feet for 2023, and 188 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 Jewell County?

222 points of diversion sit in Jewell County, reporting 67,781 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

Jewell 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
52064	Jewell	surface	45,396	15,970	27,000	4
17392	Jewell	surface	18,135	15,715	32,000	1
85178	Jewell	ground	324	162	0	26
83445	Jewell	ground	197	136	0	25
68112	Jewell	ground	179	96	130	13
83443	Jewell	ground	177	88	0	28
34597	Jewell	ground	173	80	135	0
4660	Jewell	ground	148	80	128	1
9548	Jewell	surface	137	70	120	2
61171	Jewell	ground	126	83	202	7
3065	Jewell	ground	120	36	0	1
69554	Jewell	ground	117	122	0	16
65544	Jewell	ground	113	76	130	10
24963	Jewell	surface	112	40	100	2
63556	Jewell	ground	102	86	166	12
24445	Jewell	ground	101	52	90	0
7264	Jewell	ground	100	71	140	1
2346	Jewell	surface	98	66	142	4
24101	Jewell	surface	98	82	88	1
69555	Jewell	ground	97	59	0	16
45116	Jewell	ground	96	62	135	0
60874	Jewell	ground	95	68	120	8
40768	Jewell	surface	94	53	117	0
25301	Jewell	ground	93	103	0	0
28497	Jewell	ground	88	64	136	0
11779	Jewell	ground	85	46	70	0
64357	Jewell	ground	85	66	135	11
9254	Jewell	surface	82	42	168	3
7215	Jewell	ground	79	50	154	1
12200	Jewell	surface	79	50	171	1
81880	Jewell	ground	74	60	180	25
83902	Jewell	ground	74	41	125	26
16940	Jewell	ground	68	42	58	1
12015	Jewell	surface	65	45	68	1
48953	Jewell	ground	64	42	60	5
40806	Jewell	surface	62	75	124	7
81398	Jewell	surface	62	22	165	24
54890	Jewell	ground	56	60	143	0
35503	Jewell	surface	39	19	30	4
37938	Jewell	surface	33	17	30	1
42109	Jewell	surface	28	14	31	16
84099	Jewell	ground	23	18	0	25
54918	Jewell	surface	23	14	22	2
14430	Jewell	ground	23	16	120	1
33523	Jewell	surface	22	30	73	8
42106	Jewell	ground	19	14	20	1
18282	Jewell	surface	19	21	66	18
18346	Jewell	surface	18	40	55	4
46376	Jewell	surface	17	5	45	2
54647	Jewell	surface	10	2	45	4
52035	Jewell	ground	9	15	0	6
84067	Jewell	ground	7	10	0	25
81420	Jewell	surface	7	29	50	24
49843	Jewell	ground	7	10	0	0
61223	Jewell	ground	7	8	0	7
89021	Jewell	surface	6	9	140	31
23658	Jewell	ground	5	4	70	8
84100	Jewell	ground	3	8	0	25
22975	Jewell	ground	2	1	0	13
84098	Jewell	ground	1	1	0	25
9411	Jewell	ground	0	6	0	1
1049	Jewell	surface	0	0	0	29
1772	Jewell	ground	0	0	0	15
2029	Jewell	ground	0	0	0	34
2645	Jewell	surface	0	0	0	34
3593	Jewell	ground	0	0	0	34
3786	Jewell	surface	0	0	0	10
4248	Jewell	ground	0	0	0	34
4433	Jewell	ground	0	0	0	34
4793	Jewell	ground	0	0	0	34
4857	Jewell	surface	0	0	0	32
5202	Jewell	ground	0	0	0	34
5305	Jewell	surface	0	0	0	34
5345	Jewell	surface	0	0	0	31
6038	Jewell	ground	0	0	0	34
6670	Jewell	surface	0	0	0	34
7010	Jewell	ground	0	0	0	30
7247	Jewell	ground	0	0	0	34
7550	Jewell	surface	0	0	0	34
7697	Jewell	surface	0	0	0	34
7792	Jewell	surface	0	0	0	34
7815	Jewell	surface	0	0	0	34
8445	Jewell	ground	0	0	0	34
8782	Jewell	surface	0	0	0	34
8827	Jewell	ground	0	0	0	34
9577	Jewell	ground	0	0	0	22
10073	Jewell	surface	0	1	0	11
10460	Jewell	surface	0	0	0	34
10976	Jewell	surface	0	0	0	34
12073	Jewell	surface	0	0	0	20
12187	Jewell	ground	0	0	0	34
12267	Jewell	surface	0	0	0	34
12314	Jewell	ground	0	0	0	27
12533	Jewell	ground	0	0	0	34
12810	Jewell	surface	0	0	0	34
13475	Jewell	surface	0	0	0	30
13755	Jewell	ground	0	0	0	19
13957	Jewell	surface	0	0	0	34
15172	Jewell	surface	0	0	0	20
16207	Jewell	ground	0	0	0	34
16398	Jewell	surface	0	0	0	28
16662	Jewell	ground	0	0	0	10
16854	Jewell	ground	0	0	0	34
17150	Jewell	ground	0	0	0	34
17981	Jewell	ground	0	0	0	34
17998	Jewell	surface	0	0	0	34
18701	Jewell	surface	0	0	0	34
19262	Jewell	surface	0	0	0	28
20456	Jewell	surface	0	0	0	27
20948	Jewell	ground	0	0	0	34
21020	Jewell	ground	0	0	0	34
21411	Jewell	ground	0	0	0	34
21621	Jewell	surface	0	0	0	32
21952	Jewell	surface	0	0	0	20
21959	Jewell	surface	0	0	0	34
22086	Jewell	ground	0	0	0	21
22230	Jewell	surface	0	0	0	11
23290	Jewell	surface	0	0	0	34
23731	Jewell	ground	0	0	0	34
24690	Jewell	ground	0	0	0	34

Counties with a comparable file

Osborne 311
Douglas 310
Marion 298
Johnson 297
Smith 293
Jefferson 290
Barber 289
Rooks 284
Mitchell 274
Ness 274
Geary 261
Nemaha 247
Wyandotte 212

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.