Water use in Johnson County

297 points of diversion — 0.5% of the Kansas file — reporting 28,719 acre-feet in 2023.

297Points

28,7192023, acre-feet

4,867Acres irrigated

81Reporting use

What the series actually shows — Johnson County

Reported use here peaked in 2001 at 29,201 acre-feet and bottomed in 1995 at 14,334. 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 22,690 acre-feet a year against 16,026 in the first ten — higher. And the number of points reporting any use moved from 55 to 81: the count of straws in the ground barely changes, whatever the year does to the volume.

Reported use in Johnson 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	14,872	1,968	55
1991	14,935	3,473	61
1992	15,121	3,226	57
1993	15,531	3,478	59
1994	15,604	3,588	73
1995	14,334	3,174	66
1996	14,661	3,548	72
1997	15,998	3,329	79
1998	15,877	3,943	80
1999	23,331	4,140	82
2000	28,138	4,015	87
2001	29,201	4,061	93
2002	26,437	4,853	93
2003	24,282	4,931	93
2004	21,557	4,455	86
2005	25,735	4,551	85
2006	28,285	5,088	85
2007	25,383	4,649	83
2008	21,812	4,849	82
2009	19,063	4,536	84
2010	19,472	3,761	79
2011	22,604	3,890	83
2012	27,970	3,779	80
2013	22,991	3,984	81
2014	20,420	3,853	80
2015	20,418	3,671	75
2016	23,552	3,552	76
2017	18,647	4,261	74
2018	20,845	3,954	74
2019	20,544	4,174	75
2020	25,272	3,894	77
2021	23,770	4,459	80
2022	24,713	3,972	80
2023	28,719	4,867	81

Where the water comes from

Source	Points	Share
surface water — a river, stream or reservoir	219	73.7%
groundwater — a well	78	26.3%

Which management district

District	Points	Share
Outside any district	297	100.0%

⚠️ What a zero here does not mean

216 of the 297 points in Johnson County report 0 acre-feet for 2023, and 263 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 Johnson County?

297 points of diversion sit in Johnson County, reporting 28,719 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

Johnson 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
24549	Johnson	surface	5,583	2,051	0	0
60024	Johnson	ground	4,524	4,308	0	9
69418	Johnson	ground	3,643	3,261	0	14
85919	Johnson	surface	3,177	1,119	0	27
65938	Johnson	ground	2,892	2,126	0	12
70633	Johnson	ground	2,607	2,830	0	15
25821	Johnson	ground	538	257	0	4
85920	Johnson	surface	369	120	0	27
65881	Johnson	surface	242	53	150	11
87392	Johnson	surface	234	35	0	29
32794	Johnson	ground	230	212	0	4
63089	Johnson	surface	228	56	0	10
89938	Johnson	ground	201	20	0	33
8242	Johnson	surface	197	172	140	0
30132	Johnson	ground	189	134	0	4
89937	Johnson	ground	186	19	0	33
6803	Johnson	surface	173	116	319	0
6148	Johnson	ground	162	188	0	19
19768	Johnson	ground	149	15	0	17
534	Johnson	ground	149	164	0	4
22579	Johnson	ground	146	15	0	17
4039	Johnson	surface	143	103	407	1
1247	Johnson	surface	138	103	54	0
21565	Johnson	surface	123	96	100	0
46187	Johnson	surface	119	68	211	1
35874	Johnson	surface	116	75	136	1
63832	Johnson	surface	114	95	83	11
1739	Johnson	surface	113	96	100	6
27014	Johnson	ground	102	215	0	2
54540	Johnson	surface	102	78	135	4
63952	Johnson	surface	94	39	40	10
84840	Johnson	surface	93	54	0	26
66099	Johnson	surface	92	61	165	11
9204	Johnson	surface	88	100	230	2
89518	Johnson	surface	79	22	0	32
33731	Johnson	ground	78	99	0	4
44795	Johnson	surface	71	54	407	1
17986	Johnson	surface	67	65	45	1
1204	Johnson	surface	67	40	32	7
77955	Johnson	surface	66	52	0	20
34045	Johnson	surface	64	29	319	8
49434	Johnson	surface	64	320	129	0
5342	Johnson	surface	62	28	98	1
84178	Johnson	ground	57	46	0	26
20822	Johnson	surface	55	40	66	20
20987	Johnson	surface	52	26	144	1
43094	Johnson	surface	51	22	66	1
66218	Johnson	surface	43	39	152	12
8405	Johnson	surface	38	27	130	1
9062	Johnson	surface	38	16	30	0
53411	Johnson	surface	38	14	78	1
38699	Johnson	surface	36	34	124	1
77278	Johnson	ground	35	1,120	0	22
88634	Johnson	ground	34	4	0	32
54575	Johnson	surface	34	28	32	0
41448	Johnson	surface	32	21	65	15
83107	Johnson	surface	28	22	11	25
63834	Johnson	surface	28	42	83	17
90051	Johnson	surface	24	2	0	33
53845	Johnson	ground	23	28	94	0
62170	Johnson	surface	21	10	8	9
67871	Johnson	surface	21	24	25	15
1812	Johnson	surface	18	53	18	6
84060	Johnson	surface	17	20	0	26
76584	Johnson	surface	15	28	136	21
89514	Johnson	surface	14	6	0	32
64543	Johnson	surface	14	58	76	13
60153	Johnson	surface	14	10	7	9
49037	Johnson	surface	12	116	120	0
66177	Johnson	surface	11	10	15	12
40560	Johnson	ground	9	14	38	1
87032	Johnson	surface	8	1	0	31
39258	Johnson	surface	6	1	8	6
127	Johnson	ground	4	158	0	4
64756	Johnson	surface	3	5	25	13
63267	Johnson	ground	3	45	0	11
524	Johnson	surface	2	2	10	5
62268	Johnson	surface	2	3	1	16
67690	Johnson	surface	1	0	5	13
46803	Johnson	ground	0	0	0	8
17326	Johnson	ground	0	145	0	4
354	Johnson	ground	0	0	0	19
433	Johnson	surface	0	0	0	33
1048	Johnson	surface	0	0	0	34
1377	Johnson	surface	0	1	0	19
1378	Johnson	ground	0	148	0	4
3494	Johnson	surface	0	0	0	11
3848	Johnson	ground	0	0	0	34
4545	Johnson	ground	0	0	0	34
5090	Johnson	surface	0	0	0	34
6072	Johnson	ground	0	0	0	34
6421	Johnson	surface	0	0	0	34
6559	Johnson	surface	0	0	0	32
7265	Johnson	ground	0	0	0	34
7417	Johnson	ground	0	0	0	28
7943	Johnson	surface	0	0	0	34
8536	Johnson	surface	0	0	0	34
9366	Johnson	surface	0	0	0	34
9593	Johnson	surface	0	0	0	34
10722	Johnson	surface	0	304	0	8
11666	Johnson	ground	0	0	0	32
11766	Johnson	surface	0	0	0	21
13048	Johnson	surface	0	0	0	16
13054	Johnson	ground	0	0	0	34
13527	Johnson	ground	0	0	0	26
14024	Johnson	ground	0	0	0	34
14204	Johnson	surface	0	0	0	34
14259	Johnson	ground	0	0	0	22
14853	Johnson	surface	0	0	0	34
16213	Johnson	ground	0	0	0	29
16386	Johnson	surface	0	0	0	34
16409	Johnson	surface	0	0	0	20
16595	Johnson	surface	0	0	0	34
16725	Johnson	surface	0	0	0	33
17121	Johnson	surface	0	0	0	22
17535	Johnson	surface	0	0	0	34
17781	Johnson	ground	0	0	0	18
18088	Johnson	ground	0	0	0	9
18889	Johnson	surface	0	0	0	34
20793	Johnson	ground	0	0	0	10

Counties with a comparable file

Trego 352
Riley 347
Lane 334
Wabaunsee 312
Osborne 311
Douglas 310
Marion 298
Smith 293
Jefferson 290
Barber 289
Rooks 284
Mitchell 274
Ness 274

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.