Water use in Ness County

274 points of diversion — 0.5% of the Kansas file — reporting 3,677 acre-feet in 2023.

274Points

3,6772023, acre-feet

3,580Acres irrigated

81Reporting use

What the series actually shows — Ness County

Reported use here peaked in 1991 at 8,675 acre-feet and bottomed in 1993 at 1,881. 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 3,410 acre-feet a year against 4,904 in the first ten — lower. And the number of points reporting any use moved from 110 to 81: the count of straws in the ground barely changes, whatever the year does to the volume.

Reported use in Ness 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	7,067	4,425	110
1991	8,675	4,877	129
1992	3,092	3,101	94
1993	1,881	3,203	76
1994	5,716	4,085	115
1995	5,409	5,746	113
1996	4,650	5,225	108
1997	4,318	3,613	95
1998	3,927	3,403	95
1999	4,304	3,804	94
2000	5,160	3,989	107
2001	5,239	4,158	108
2002	5,263	4,414	112
2003	5,040	4,221	108
2004	4,155	4,030	101
2005	4,414	4,253	108
2006	4,989	4,332	101
2007	2,686	3,584	98
2008	3,779	3,595	99
2009	3,799	3,802	100
2010	3,831	3,998	100
2011	6,361	4,241	107
2012	5,171	4,619	103
2013	4,208	4,776	100
2014	4,173	4,650	102
2015	4,001	4,918	103
2016	2,779	4,190	93
2017	3,753	4,441	96
2018	2,192	3,958	84
2019	3,244	4,468	85
2020	2,915	3,982	77
2021	3,129	4,071	82
2022	4,241	3,694	84
2023	3,677	3,580	81

Where the water comes from

Source	Points	Share
groundwater — a well	226	82.5%
surface water — a river, stream or reservoir	48	17.5%

Which management district

District	Points	Share
Outside any district	274	100.0%

⚠️ What a zero here does not mean

193 of the 274 points in Ness County report 0 acre-feet for 2023, and 210 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 Ness County?

274 points of diversion sit in Ness County, reporting 3,677 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

Ness 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
14161	Ness	ground	160	154	125	1
40335	Ness	ground	151	120	110	4
38399	Ness	ground	149	119	78	0
3657	Ness	ground	147	87	70	3
4733	Ness	ground	138	95	87	0
17169	Ness	ground	136	119	74	0
25737	Ness	ground	135	142	120	14
2530	Ness	ground	125	77	120	5
28456	Ness	ground	124	116	120	1
77516	Ness	ground	124	81	84	20
64479	Ness	ground	122	93	122	10
25309	Ness	ground	120	81	114	1
83184	Ness	ground	119	116	118	24
44340	Ness	ground	110	104	56	0
78892	Ness	ground	104	98	105	21
51798	Ness	ground	103	48	90	5
1914	Ness	ground	96	42	270	0
67191	Ness	ground	95	78	55	12
46296	Ness	ground	88	84	77	14
76295	Ness	ground	88	88	44	19
43213	Ness	ground	78	83	85	2
9667	Ness	ground	71	67	62	0
54209	Ness	ground	64	48	41	0
80189	Ness	ground	59	53	59	23
37220	Ness	ground	57	48	93	5
37043	Ness	ground	54	74	70	2
52268	Ness	ground	52	47	120	3
6324	Ness	ground	43	29	44	1
49780	Ness	ground	38	20	38	0
50955	Ness	ground	36	37	40	5
52313	Ness	ground	33	47	119	9
74326	Ness	ground	30	34	161	17
28982	Ness	ground	29	32	45	1
32076	Ness	ground	29	28	17	0
83236	Ness	ground	28	33	37	24
54286	Ness	ground	26	32	28	2
52662	Ness	ground	25	26	0	0
72945	Ness	ground	24	26	0	17
42929	Ness	ground	24	20	0	3
67979	Ness	ground	24	36	64	12
27772	Ness	surface	24	9	25	6
72946	Ness	ground	21	19	0	17
51885	Ness	ground	21	26	12	4
54725	Ness	ground	20	18	12	3
24398	Ness	ground	20	13	0	2
49500	Ness	ground	18	16	46	2
5026	Ness	ground	17	17	0	16
25960	Ness	ground	17	16	0	1
54182	Ness	ground	15	15	0	1
41902	Ness	ground	15	15	0	1
2197	Ness	ground	15	21	81	1
36302	Ness	ground	15	5	0	0
42176	Ness	ground	15	27	79	0
19225	Ness	ground	14	12	0	4
40249	Ness	ground	13	13	0	1
48986	Ness	ground	13	8	0	0
52559	Ness	ground	12	11	0	0
12253	Ness	ground	12	24	65	0
74892	Ness	ground	12	18	0	18
27976	Ness	ground	12	24	12	2
53512	Ness	ground	10	11	0	0
11150	Ness	ground	9	12	32	4
9519	Ness	ground	9	7	0	0
25644	Ness	ground	8	8	0	1
19888	Ness	ground	7	7	0	1
3766	Ness	ground	6	5	0	0
16180	Ness	ground	6	7	0	7
31657	Ness	ground	6	1	0	10
21868	Ness	ground	4	4	0	0
64602	Ness	ground	4	7	0	11
38585	Ness	ground	4	4	0	0
33689	Ness	ground	4	14	35	3
6094	Ness	ground	4	5	0	2
49999	Ness	ground	4	4	0	1
35316	Ness	ground	3	5	0	1
72954	Ness	ground	3	2	3	17
46292	Ness	ground	2	6	0	1
80411	Ness	ground	1	4	0	24
15603	Ness	ground	1	0	15	18
32175	Ness	ground	1	5	0	1
52097	Ness	ground	0	4	0	3
309	Ness	ground	0	1	0	8
654	Ness	ground	0	0	0	22
704	Ness	ground	0	0	0	34
873	Ness	ground	0	0	0	12
923	Ness	ground	0	0	0	34
936	Ness	ground	0	0	0	34
999	Ness	ground	0	0	0	18
1796	Ness	ground	0	0	0	29
1960	Ness	surface	0	6	0	14
1986	Ness	ground	0	0	0	25
2001	Ness	ground	0	0	0	11
2047	Ness	ground	0	0	0	32
2142	Ness	ground	0	0	0	14
2316	Ness	surface	0	0	0	32
2691	Ness	surface	0	0	0	28
2692	Ness	ground	0	0	0	34
2865	Ness	ground	0	4	0	7
3926	Ness	ground	0	0	0	22
4024	Ness	ground	0	0	0	19
4025	Ness	ground	0	0	0	10
4062	Ness	ground	0	0	0	16
4260	Ness	ground	0	0	0	32
5644	Ness	ground	0	0	0	21
5880	Ness	ground	0	18	0	4
5978	Ness	ground	0	0	0	34
6004	Ness	ground	0	0	0	29
6397	Ness	ground	0	0	0	34
6622	Ness	ground	0	0	0	16
7420	Ness	ground	0	0	0	34
8232	Ness	ground	0	0	0	17
8348	Ness	ground	0	0	0	17
8442	Ness	ground	0	0	0	21
8636	Ness	ground	0	0	0	34
9009	Ness	surface	0	0	0	17
9094	Ness	ground	0	3	0	3
9141	Ness	ground	0	0	0	34
9173	Ness	ground	0	0	0	22
9859	Ness	ground	0	2	1	4
10194	Ness	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
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.