Water use in Mitchell County

274 points of diversion — 0.5% of the Kansas file — reporting 14,654 acre-feet in 2023.

274Points

14,6542023, acre-feet

14,232Acres irrigated

104Reporting use

What the series actually shows — Mitchell County

Reported use here peaked in 2002 at 25,381 acre-feet and bottomed in 1993 at 1,735. 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 12,145 acre-feet a year against 6,896 in the first ten — higher. And the number of points reporting any use moved from 98 to 104: the count of straws in the ground barely changes, whatever the year does to the volume.

Reported use in Mitchell 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	6,426	5,882	98
1991	15,494	6,088	106
1992	2,336	2,577	50
1993	1,735	294	15
1994	5,762	4,835	79
1995	8,230	5,283	88
1996	7,615	6,132	94
1997	6,687	11,744	89
1998	7,314	11,964	95
1999	7,366	12,057	94
2000	17,945	7,420	99
2001	22,801	14,780	98
2002	25,381	15,080	111
2003	15,786	14,196	95
2004	12,448	13,372	87
2005	16,490	14,021	102
2006	23,562	12,931	83
2007	19,864	6,786	95
2008	10,548	11,461	85
2009	18,980	13,081	95
2010	13,693	12,118	95
2011	14,349	13,279	102
2012	18,978	13,743	103
2013	14,173	13,935	90
2014	16,876	13,431	95
2015	14,945	12,549	89
2016	12,210	12,836	90
2017	17,442	13,522	98
2018	13,599	12,809	93
2019	4,914	10,955	75
2020	4,028	6,672	64
2021	10,326	12,847	96
2022	12,458	13,400	94
2023	14,654	14,232	104

Where the water comes from

Source	Points	Share
surface water — a river, stream or reservoir	191	69.7%
groundwater — a well	83	30.3%

Which management district

District	Points	Share
Outside any district	274	100.0%

⚠️ What a zero here does not mean

170 of the 274 points in Mitchell County report 0 acre-feet for 2023, and 230 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 Mitchell County?

274 points of diversion sit in Mitchell County, reporting 14,654 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

Mitchell 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
47040	Mitchell	surface	6,053	6,305	6,592	3
10041	Mitchell	surface	536	483	0	0
1146	Mitchell	surface	394	546	0	0
81717	Mitchell	surface	372	183	0	26
66537	Mitchell	surface	259	95	180	12
14623	Mitchell	surface	210	58	93	5
38462	Mitchell	surface	209	93	133	5
50977	Mitchell	surface	205	102	155	5
76012	Mitchell	ground	182	76	129	19
36786	Mitchell	surface	175	81	92	4
45609	Mitchell	surface	174	137	165	2
54445	Mitchell	surface	170	125	129	1
7857	Mitchell	surface	159	64	135	3
5562	Mitchell	surface	146	117	70	1
3962	Mitchell	surface	145	119	108	1
28856	Mitchell	surface	144	70	78	6
33169	Mitchell	surface	139	81	180	5
37807	Mitchell	surface	139	73	204	5
84290	Mitchell	ground	138	71	132	25
29441	Mitchell	surface	128	44	130	13
47537	Mitchell	surface	127	92	195	1
84721	Mitchell	surface	119	39	150	25
796	Mitchell	surface	116	89	86	1
77662	Mitchell	surface	114	79	180	20
31918	Mitchell	surface	111	75	106	2
78301	Mitchell	surface	111	50	125	21
76498	Mitchell	surface	110	63	96	19
32251	Mitchell	surface	107	78	133	2
23739	Mitchell	surface	107	46	169	7
52223	Mitchell	surface	106	78	180	3
29939	Mitchell	surface	104	66	110	4
25106	Mitchell	surface	102	62	90	7
61651	Mitchell	ground	99	61	111	10
86145	Mitchell	surface	98	39	85	27
34057	Mitchell	ground	97	37	69	3
70767	Mitchell	surface	92	45	78	17
50138	Mitchell	ground	92	60	100	1
6023	Mitchell	surface	90	61	95	9
82445	Mitchell	surface	89	64	77	24
1233	Mitchell	surface	88	52	120	10
52250	Mitchell	ground	86	51	98	2
41470	Mitchell	surface	85	48	102	3
4079	Mitchell	ground	83	52	90	2
86377	Mitchell	ground	82	35	0	27
70625	Mitchell	surface	78	38	100	14
84720	Mitchell	surface	74	25	70	25
3203	Mitchell	surface	70	32	60	19
6332	Mitchell	surface	69	57	128	2
34287	Mitchell	surface	67	28	86	7
14889	Mitchell	surface	66	25	140	10
83199	Mitchell	surface	65	44	55	24
11026	Mitchell	surface	65	22	70	13
8305	Mitchell	ground	64	43	0	1
80931	Mitchell	surface	60	31	46	22
70599	Mitchell	surface	59	31	85	14
14922	Mitchell	surface	58	37	75	9
86885	Mitchell	surface	57	17	55	28
2607	Mitchell	surface	55	41	130	3
75323	Mitchell	ground	55	45	72	18
32028	Mitchell	surface	54	32	45	2
52424	Mitchell	ground	54	48	82	0
48681	Mitchell	surface	53	25	120	5
64216	Mitchell	surface	53	36	90	10
84357	Mitchell	surface	51	18	30	27
46919	Mitchell	surface	51	31	50	6
42989	Mitchell	surface	50	32	20	4
12007	Mitchell	surface	50	33	48	4
34433	Mitchell	surface	50	51	82	3
31409	Mitchell	surface	49	30	70	14
85613	Mitchell	surface	46	35	60	27
10859	Mitchell	surface	46	26	24	4
72935	Mitchell	ground	43	12	0	17
12376	Mitchell	surface	42	28	100	6
21084	Mitchell	surface	38	15	19	4
20902	Mitchell	surface	37	35	100	5
47276	Mitchell	ground	37	9	26	3
12170	Mitchell	ground	35	17	48	20
20030	Mitchell	ground	33	23	29	3
5451	Mitchell	surface	31	6	77	29
66352	Mitchell	surface	28	39	50	11
35115	Mitchell	surface	28	52	88	4
8546	Mitchell	surface	27	19	34	4
79575	Mitchell	ground	24	15	0	28
41514	Mitchell	surface	23	4	38	12
11771	Mitchell	ground	22	8	15	3
66102	Mitchell	surface	20	76	137	11
33626	Mitchell	surface	16	9	27	4
32934	Mitchell	ground	15	10	0	15
73150	Mitchell	ground	14	10	0	19
28755	Mitchell	ground	13	2	10	18
74186	Mitchell	surface	12	1	48	17
42179	Mitchell	ground	9	8	0	0
39796	Mitchell	surface	9	27	96	2
24249	Mitchell	ground	7	8	0	12
40972	Mitchell	ground	7	2	0	16
41523	Mitchell	surface	6	2	10	5
72685	Mitchell	ground	4	11	0	17
71569	Mitchell	ground	3	1	0	17
15478	Mitchell	surface	3	6	7	4
10061	Mitchell	surface	2	9	30	5
27490	Mitchell	ground	2	28	0	0
4950	Mitchell	ground	1	1	0	3
41010	Mitchell	ground	1	26	0	0
12225	Mitchell	ground	0	0	0	2
447	Mitchell	surface	0	0	0	34
679	Mitchell	ground	0	0	0	34
689	Mitchell	surface	0	6	0	8
972	Mitchell	surface	0	0	0	34
1187	Mitchell	surface	0	0	0	34
1808	Mitchell	ground	0	0	0	34
2194	Mitchell	surface	0	0	0	32
4449	Mitchell	ground	0	0	0	17
5410	Mitchell	surface	0	0	0	29
5496	Mitchell	surface	0	0	0	11
6634	Mitchell	surface	0	0	0	34
6971	Mitchell	ground	0	0	0	23
7539	Mitchell	ground	0	5	0	7
8042	Mitchell	surface	0	0	0	10
8085	Mitchell	surface	0	0	0	11
8759	Mitchell	surface	0	0	0	34

By source in Mitchell County

surface water — a river, stream or reservoir — Mitchell County 191

Counties with a comparable file

Osborne 311
Douglas 310
Marion 298
Johnson 297
Smith 293
Jefferson 290
Barber 289
Rooks 284
Ness 274
Geary 261
Nemaha 247
Jewell 222
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.