Water use in Marion County

298 points of diversion — 0.5% of the Kansas file — reporting 2,614 acre-feet in 2023.

298Points

2,6142023, acre-feet

3,685Acres irrigated

73Reporting use

What the series actually shows — Marion County

Reported use here peaked in 2022 at 3,084 acre-feet and bottomed in 1993 at 985. 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 2,413 acre-feet a year against 1,682 in the first ten — higher. And the number of points reporting any use moved from 66 to 73: the count of straws in the ground barely changes, whatever the year does to the volume.

Reported use in Marion 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	2,360	2,143	66
1991	2,009	1,532	63
1992	1,216	1,896	60
1993	985	1,179	53
1994	1,900	1,863	60
1995	1,572	1,905	59
1996	1,574	2,004	56
1997	1,719	2,213	60
1998	1,818	2,040	63
1999	1,667	1,785	59
2000	2,167	2,274	62
2001	1,965	2,151	58
2002	2,064	2,419	57
2003	2,126	2,356	59
2004	1,578	2,520	63
2005	1,909	2,435	63
2006	2,216	2,659	61
2007	1,824	2,492	66
2008	1,339	2,186	63
2009	1,273	2,969	67
2010	1,703	2,683	65
2011	2,533	2,738	65
2012	3,021	3,158	65
2013	1,940	3,442	62
2014	2,751	3,748	67
2015	2,068	3,620	72
2016	1,772	3,748	74
2017	2,497	3,725	75
2018	2,409	3,208	77
2019	1,448	3,979	71
2020	2,631	3,928	72
2021	2,858	4,150	71
2022	3,084	3,965	74
2023	2,614	3,685	73

Where the water comes from

Source	Points	Share
groundwater — a well	209	70.1%
surface water — a river, stream or reservoir	89	29.9%

Which management district

District	Points	Share
Outside any district	298	100.0%

⚠️ What a zero here does not mean

225 of the 298 points in Marion County report 0 acre-feet for 2023, and 269 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 Marion County?

298 points of diversion sit in Marion County, reporting 2,614 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

Marion 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
80786	Marion	ground	222	133	260	25
86974	Marion	ground	163	86	260	28
79172	Marion	ground	141	127	180	24
33309	Marion	ground	123	78	200	5
79783	Marion	ground	120	105	180	25
26142	Marion	surface	111	73	137	1
53425	Marion	surface	111	73	114	23
4643	Marion	ground	100	60	160	13
50751	Marion	surface	98	61	120	1
79185	Marion	ground	92	56	180	22
32121	Marion	surface	90	112	260	1
51827	Marion	surface	87	47	67	1
85366	Marion	ground	80	53	115	27
87705	Marion	surface	80	39	164	30
25550	Marion	ground	79	66	80	4
79069	Marion	ground	67	49	160	21
919	Marion	surface	59	74	135	4
41404	Marion	ground	56	40	0	2
13237	Marion	ground	56	47	0	0
23042	Marion	ground	53	46	160	4
86198	Marion	ground	50	14	0	28
52318	Marion	surface	47	52	120	0
49183	Marion	ground	40	34	0	1
377	Marion	ground	39	41	0	2
9549	Marion	ground	31	19	80	5
40680	Marion	ground	31	21	11	1
67954	Marion	ground	26	28	0	14
33285	Marion	ground	20	17	0	0
76951	Marion	ground	20	15	0	20
88680	Marion	ground	20	2	0	32
76954	Marion	ground	20	6	0	25
32080	Marion	surface	19	23	86	4
52358	Marion	ground	19	20	0	10
8107	Marion	ground	19	18	0	2
6233	Marion	ground	18	19	0	3
80615	Marion	ground	18	16	0	22
83606	Marion	ground	17	29	0	25
76440	Marion	ground	16	12	13	19
41076	Marion	surface	14	20	47	2
60680	Marion	ground	13	19	29	7
81943	Marion	ground	12	10	0	23
61488	Marion	ground	9	6	9	8
88678	Marion	ground	8	1	0	32
29296	Marion	ground	8	7	0	3
70981	Marion	ground	7	6	0	15
50277	Marion	ground	6	7	0	0
23491	Marion	ground	6	6	0	1
90174	Marion	ground	6	1	0	33
61895	Marion	ground	6	4	19	8
26354	Marion	ground	5	3	0	15
85452	Marion	ground	5	2	10	27
72432	Marion	ground	5	3	10	16
76953	Marion	ground	5	4	0	25
74188	Marion	ground	4	3	10	17
8120	Marion	ground	4	7	0	1
9413	Marion	ground	4	7	0	0
78676	Marion	ground	4	9	14	22
2946	Marion	ground	3	5	0	0
18527	Marion	ground	3	24	5	9
76952	Marion	ground	3	8	0	25
88679	Marion	ground	3	0	0	33
5063	Marion	ground	2	0	14	15
83584	Marion	ground	2	6	0	31
78264	Marion	ground	2	34	100	21
90175	Marion	ground	2	0	0	33
78675	Marion	ground	1	9	6	22
79359	Marion	ground	1	14	6	24
22394	Marion	ground	1	34	63	0
11380	Marion	ground	1	4	30	14
16703	Marion	ground	1	10	41	3
3018	Marion	ground	1	3	0	1
306	Marion	surface	0	9	30	12
71818	Marion	ground	0	0	0	18
2	Marion	ground	0	0	0	34
114	Marion	ground	0	0	0	29
232	Marion	surface	0	0	0	34
1312	Marion	ground	0	0	0	30
1950	Marion	ground	0	0	0	31
2584	Marion	ground	0	0	0	23
2767	Marion	surface	0	0	0	34
2795	Marion	ground	0	0	0	34
2842	Marion	ground	0	0	0	26
3667	Marion	ground	0	0	0	31
3735	Marion	ground	0	0	0	12
3949	Marion	ground	0	0	0	27
4579	Marion	ground	0	0	0	34
4907	Marion	surface	0	0	0	34
5748	Marion	surface	0	0	0	34
6050	Marion	surface	0	0	0	12
6074	Marion	ground	0	0	0	16
6254	Marion	surface	0	0	0	34
6624	Marion	ground	0	0	0	33
6892	Marion	surface	0	0	0	34
6955	Marion	surface	0	0	0	34
7037	Marion	ground	0	3	0	9
7591	Marion	ground	0	0	0	34
7962	Marion	surface	0	0	0	34
8036	Marion	ground	0	0	0	19
8176	Marion	ground	0	0	0	34
8271	Marion	ground	0	0	0	11
8523	Marion	surface	0	0	0	15
8781	Marion	ground	0	0	0	18
9072	Marion	surface	0	0	0	34
9922	Marion	ground	0	0	0	34
11425	Marion	surface	0	0	0	21
13280	Marion	surface	0	0	0	13
13439	Marion	ground	0	0	0	32
13630	Marion	ground	0	0	0	17
13684	Marion	ground	0	0	0	24
14456	Marion	ground	0	0	0	34
15374	Marion	ground	0	0	0	31
16037	Marion	ground	0	0	0	34
16134	Marion	ground	0	0	0	13
16238	Marion	surface	0	0	0	11
17314	Marion	ground	0	0	0	28
18434	Marion	surface	0	0	0	34
19350	Marion	ground	0	0	0	22
20549	Marion	ground	0	0	0	11
20918	Marion	ground	0	0	0	29
21647	Marion	surface	0	0	0	23

Counties with a comparable file

Marshall 359
Trego 352
Riley 347
Lane 334
Wabaunsee 312
Osborne 311
Douglas 310
Johnson 297
Smith 293
Jefferson 290
Barber 289
Rooks 284
Mitchell 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.