Water use in Osborne County

311 points of diversion — 0.5% of the Kansas file — reporting 3,438 acre-feet in 2023.

311Points

3,4382023, acre-feet

4,114Acres irrigated

85Reporting use

What the series actually shows — Osborne County

Reported use here peaked in 1991 at 6,178 acre-feet and bottomed in 1993 at 664. 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 3,297 acre-feet a year against 3,744 in the first ten — lower. And the number of points reporting any use moved from 126 to 85: the count of straws in the ground barely changes, whatever the year does to the volume.

Reported use in Osborne 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	4,898	4,514	126
1991	6,178	5,690	141
1992	1,268	1,420	57
1993	664	71	28
1994	3,115	2,809	95
1995	4,192	3,394	102
1996	4,191	3,690	108
1997	4,687	4,565	117
1998	4,023	3,562	106
1999	4,220	3,697	107
2000	5,922	4,567	113
2001	4,470	3,857	100
2002	6,034	4,257	109
2003	5,117	4,330	106
2004	3,808	3,746	105
2005	3,244	4,067	97
2006	3,627	3,489	88
2007	2,662	3,002	80
2008	2,278	2,983	83
2009	3,256	3,245	82
2010	1,750	2,625	71
2011	3,358	3,398	86
2012	5,501	3,982	89
2013	3,664	3,894	92
2014	3,492	3,923	92
2015	3,022	3,753	89
2016	3,043	4,300	91
2017	3,925	3,989	96
2018	3,604	4,327	100
2019	2,533	4,043	86
2020	3,084	4,262	90
2021	3,032	4,215	88
2022	3,797	4,178	87
2023	3,438	4,114	85

Where the water comes from

Source	Points	Share
groundwater — a well	183	58.8%
surface water — a river, stream or reservoir	128	41.2%

Which management district

District	Points	Share
Outside any district	311	100.0%

⚠️ What a zero here does not mean

226 of the 311 points in Osborne County report 0 acre-feet for 2023, and 250 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 Osborne County?

311 points of diversion sit in Osborne County, reporting 3,438 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

Osborne 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
16990	Osborne	surface	152	118	247	4
43896	Osborne	surface	148	52	132	4
17439	Osborne	ground	122	57	120	2
41847	Osborne	surface	103	57	90	3
87248	Osborne	surface	97	27	198	30
23437	Osborne	ground	96	76	125	5
6973	Osborne	ground	95	90	0	14
3420	Osborne	surface	92	66	50	1
20010	Osborne	surface	90	103	60	2
25391	Osborne	ground	90	79	165	2
29083	Osborne	ground	82	25	70	10
47166	Osborne	ground	75	96	0	12
41817	Osborne	ground	73	49	40	1
19489	Osborne	surface	70	16	67	20
42610	Osborne	surface	68	30	167	25
37717	Osborne	ground	68	73	0	6
36825	Osborne	surface	66	35	107	12
11354	Osborne	surface	65	31	76	4
7487	Osborne	ground	64	34	0	1
54951	Osborne	surface	63	14	38	23
37353	Osborne	ground	62	38	60	2
6445	Osborne	ground	62	34	78	10
89991	Osborne	ground	59	6	99	33
52219	Osborne	surface	58	115	95	2
28934	Osborne	surface	57	50	66	4
12793	Osborne	ground	55	89	129	1
45494	Osborne	ground	53	37	61	3
10488	Osborne	ground	52	60	85	1
6748	Osborne	ground	50	37	0	0
36396	Osborne	surface	50	23	50	8
51403	Osborne	ground	50	45	0	2
10917	Osborne	ground	49	38	57	2
46747	Osborne	ground	48	59	151	3
35685	Osborne	surface	43	22	54	5
12585	Osborne	ground	43	35	58	1
52394	Osborne	surface	42	41	82	2
34693	Osborne	ground	41	39	65	0
10688	Osborne	surface	39	58	65	3
12090	Osborne	surface	38	18	32	5
16153	Osborne	ground	38	35	55	3
31654	Osborne	ground	37	24	37	12
38784	Osborne	ground	34	34	52	3
1830	Osborne	ground	34	43	57	2
45676	Osborne	ground	34	20	58	11
32148	Osborne	ground	33	28	22	2
27861	Osborne	ground	32	19	54	9
37315	Osborne	ground	31	33	96	8
20480	Osborne	ground	30	23	0	1
31078	Osborne	ground	29	43	50	1
79161	Osborne	surface	27	13	14	27
36102	Osborne	surface	27	25	12	2
50415	Osborne	ground	26	12	34	4
2572	Osborne	ground	25	30	50	1
7810	Osborne	surface	25	31	53	3
43710	Osborne	surface	24	39	40	6
12637	Osborne	ground	21	24	45	1
19105	Osborne	ground	21	40	0	0
15671	Osborne	surface	18	11	0	20
10439	Osborne	surface	16	14	62	18
30683	Osborne	ground	15	18	14	4
62524	Osborne	ground	14	4	0	31
76905	Osborne	ground	14	4	0	25
83381	Osborne	ground	14	7	12	24
89791	Osborne	ground	11	4	0	32
25282	Osborne	ground	10	18	30	8
34924	Osborne	ground	10	11	0	3
51949	Osborne	ground	9	21	0	7
26835	Osborne	surface	9	8	10	4
53652	Osborne	ground	8	21	0	1
21860	Osborne	ground	7	25	102	2
83383	Osborne	ground	6	20	40	24
8992	Osborne	ground	5	7	21	8
16865	Osborne	surface	3	2	12	7
48933	Osborne	ground	3	0	43	11
64168	Osborne	ground	3	8	0	9
3290	Osborne	ground	2	2	0	5
3039	Osborne	ground	1	4	0	16
90541	Osborne	ground	1	0	0	33
3829	Osborne	ground	1	1	0	3
25559	Osborne	ground	1	1	0	2
10227	Osborne	ground	0	1	0	1
43279	Osborne	ground	0	0	0	21
22990	Osborne	ground	0	5	0	6
21366	Osborne	surface	0	0	0	29
10831	Osborne	surface	0	0	0	31
818	Osborne	surface	0	0	0	18
1741	Osborne	surface	0	0	0	34
1761	Osborne	surface	0	1	0	7
2063	Osborne	ground	0	0	0	34
2099	Osborne	ground	0	0	0	32
2294	Osborne	surface	0	0	0	34
2566	Osborne	ground	0	0	0	34
2704	Osborne	surface	0	0	0	34
2935	Osborne	surface	0	0	0	34
3124	Osborne	ground	0	10	0	7
3143	Osborne	ground	0	0	0	8
3281	Osborne	ground	0	1	0	25
3670	Osborne	surface	0	5	0	9
3807	Osborne	ground	0	0	0	17
3865	Osborne	surface	0	0	0	34
4133	Osborne	surface	0	0	0	20
4425	Osborne	ground	0	0	0	34
4430	Osborne	ground	0	0	0	34
4709	Osborne	surface	0	0	0	34
4785	Osborne	ground	0	0	0	27
4850	Osborne	ground	0	0	0	32
4994	Osborne	surface	0	0	0	34
5250	Osborne	ground	0	1	0	7
5282	Osborne	ground	0	0	0	25
5747	Osborne	ground	0	45	0	3
6145	Osborne	surface	0	0	0	34
6237	Osborne	surface	0	0	0	18
6422	Osborne	ground	0	0	0	19
6761	Osborne	ground	0	0	0	16
7229	Osborne	ground	0	10	0	7
7340	Osborne	surface	0	0	0	34
7389	Osborne	ground	0	0	0	34
7703	Osborne	ground	0	0	0	29
7904	Osborne	ground	0	0	0	19
8151	Osborne	ground	0	71	0	3

By source in Osborne County

groundwater — a well — Osborne County 183

Counties with a comparable file

Graham 379
Greeley 367
Marshall 359
Trego 352
Riley 347
Lane 334
Wabaunsee 312
Douglas 310
Marion 298
Johnson 297
Smith 293
Jefferson 290
Barber 289

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.