Water use in Ottawa County

467 points of diversion — 0.8% of the Kansas file — reporting 8,063 acre-feet in 2023.

467Points

8,0632023, acre-feet

9,555Acres irrigated

108Reporting use

What the series actually shows — Ottawa County

Reported use here peaked in 2023 at 8,063 acre-feet and bottomed in 1993 at 1,002. 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 5,047 acre-feet a year against 2,687 in the first ten — higher. And the number of points reporting any use moved from 82 to 108: the count of straws in the ground barely changes, whatever the year does to the volume.

Reported use in Ottawa 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	3,125	4,510	82
1991	4,761	4,720	92
1992	1,420	2,954	56
1993	1,002	1,623	40
1994	2,518	3,427	68
1995	2,561	4,022	72
1996	3,008	3,699	76
1997	2,776	3,762	73
1998	2,707	3,975	74
1999	2,993	3,904	77
2000	4,453	4,076	78
2001	3,993	4,413	77
2002	4,817	4,620	76
2003	4,437	4,243	78
2004	2,815	4,014	66
2005	3,457	4,568	77
2006	3,163	4,434	76
2007	3,608	4,036	69
2008	2,135	4,102	70
2009	2,661	4,543	72
2010	2,429	4,462	72
2011	3,566	4,870	76
2012	4,698	4,966	77
2013	2,412	4,913	67
2014	3,536	5,407	77
2015	4,513	7,045	89
2016	2,710	6,938	88
2017	6,198	7,939	93
2018	4,233	8,592	104
2019	3,594	8,267	97
2020	4,259	9,023	106
2021	5,966	8,856	107
2022	7,402	9,365	107
2023	8,063	9,555	108

Where the water comes from

Source	Points	Share
groundwater — a well	408	87.4%
surface water — a river, stream or reservoir	59	12.6%

Which management district

District	Points	Share
Outside any district	467	100.0%

⚠️ What a zero here does not mean

359 of the 467 points in Ottawa County report 0 acre-feet for 2023, and 440 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 Ottawa County?

467 points of diversion sit in Ottawa County, reporting 8,063 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

Ottawa 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
84995	Ottawa	ground	274	54	211	30
82026	Ottawa	ground	256	125	201	25
81949	Ottawa	ground	253	87	206	27
80424	Ottawa	ground	241	138	270	24
83376	Ottawa	ground	199	90	210	28
74807	Ottawa	ground	183	123	214	18
88660	Ottawa	surface	168	30	211	32
85054	Ottawa	ground	163	60	130	28
80423	Ottawa	ground	151	119	135	24
45653	Ottawa	ground	150	81	170	1
62099	Ottawa	ground	149	77	130	10
89185	Ottawa	ground	144	14	130	33
83036	Ottawa	ground	140	63	135	28
69061	Ottawa	ground	137	84	0	13
82907	Ottawa	ground	137	69	120	26
72505	Ottawa	ground	135	98	0	16
82776	Ottawa	ground	131	70	150	25
80741	Ottawa	ground	125	84	135	26
81954	Ottawa	ground	125	56	135	27
80422	Ottawa	ground	123	83	135	26
85526	Ottawa	ground	123	64	123	27
43825	Ottawa	ground	123	102	135	0
66522	Ottawa	ground	122	70	94	14
88301	Ottawa	ground	118	30	129	31
80098	Ottawa	ground	117	62	120	24
85052	Ottawa	ground	114	55	130	28
35441	Ottawa	ground	113	91	125	6
65156	Ottawa	ground	110	39	120	10
72549	Ottawa	ground	109	56	130	16
37791	Ottawa	ground	106	79	132	2
49595	Ottawa	ground	106	77	186	1
65719	Ottawa	ground	105	72	132	11
38610	Ottawa	ground	100	57	80	1
82886	Ottawa	ground	99	45	100	25
14178	Ottawa	ground	98	55	130	0
66523	Ottawa	ground	98	75	130	12
76597	Ottawa	ground	96	49	128	21
70225	Ottawa	ground	93	66	130	15
15742	Ottawa	ground	91	70	120	0
79423	Ottawa	ground	91	78	106	22
87648	Ottawa	ground	91	28	130	29
68601	Ottawa	ground	89	58	130	13
40275	Ottawa	ground	88	35	100	2
74976	Ottawa	ground	85	50	128	24
89006	Ottawa	ground	82	8	75	33
83622	Ottawa	ground	82	23	135	30
8938	Ottawa	ground	78	76	131	0
71106	Ottawa	ground	78	51	130	15
66999	Ottawa	ground	76	51	132	12
40578	Ottawa	ground	75	59	132	0
86999	Ottawa	ground	75	27	100	28
3006	Ottawa	ground	73	31	95	1
1346	Ottawa	ground	72	47	130	10
83446	Ottawa	ground	72	37	100	27
11393	Ottawa	ground	72	57	119	1
52908	Ottawa	surface	70	37	90	3
62006	Ottawa	ground	69	43	130	9
83449	Ottawa	ground	68	45	160	27
82388	Ottawa	ground	67	34	59	25
69661	Ottawa	ground	66	36	100	13
79138	Ottawa	ground	64	37	130	24
34252	Ottawa	ground	60	50	45	2
85196	Ottawa	ground	59	17	58	29
88453	Ottawa	ground	57	7	100	32
67225	Ottawa	ground	55	98	0	12
12969	Ottawa	ground	52	99	170	15
27591	Ottawa	ground	44	48	0	6
87004	Ottawa	surface	42	12	90	30
24651	Ottawa	ground	42	39	95	1
17491	Ottawa	ground	41	42	50	3
14729	Ottawa	surface	39	4	35	11
72154	Ottawa	ground	35	19	94	18
87894	Ottawa	ground	33	13	56	31
85583	Ottawa	ground	32	42	119	26
22899	Ottawa	ground	31	39	74	9
15423	Ottawa	ground	29	24	0	2
74937	Ottawa	ground	29	40	0	20
38659	Ottawa	ground	28	18	100	8
87893	Ottawa	ground	26	3	44	33
53299	Ottawa	ground	25	27	127	8
72930	Ottawa	ground	22	17	60	29
27636	Ottawa	surface	21	15	75	21
83743	Ottawa	ground	20	29	74	25
19772	Ottawa	ground	19	13	22	2
81970	Ottawa	ground	19	15	0	23
53150	Ottawa	ground	14	4	28	2
22040	Ottawa	ground	13	12	0	0
24957	Ottawa	ground	13	12	0	0
84248	Ottawa	ground	9	4	13	25
2417	Ottawa	ground	8	12	75	5
77792	Ottawa	ground	7	7	5	25
54519	Ottawa	ground	7	4	0	6
69587	Ottawa	ground	4	4	0	13
33890	Ottawa	ground	4	5	0	0
31009	Ottawa	ground	3	3	0	8
63498	Ottawa	ground	3	3	0	9
44064	Ottawa	ground	3	6	0	7
11450	Ottawa	ground	2	4	0	0
41372	Ottawa	ground	1	0	0	33
54655	Ottawa	ground	1	0	0	33
86847	Ottawa	ground	1	0	0	31
63066	Ottawa	ground	1	1	0	9
71476	Ottawa	ground	1	3	2	16
37084	Ottawa	ground	0	2	0	2
89223	Ottawa	ground	0	0	0	33
16452	Ottawa	ground	0	2	0	0
19065	Ottawa	ground	0	1	0	8
89224	Ottawa	ground	0	0	0	33
9	Ottawa	ground	0	0	0	20
236	Ottawa	ground	0	0	0	17
1401	Ottawa	surface	0	0	0	20
1682	Ottawa	ground	0	0	0	24
1827	Ottawa	surface	0	0	0	23
1847	Ottawa	ground	0	0	0	21
2271	Ottawa	ground	0	0	0	20
2618	Ottawa	surface	0	0	0	8
2806	Ottawa	surface	0	0	0	34
2901	Ottawa	ground	0	0	0	32
2976	Ottawa	ground	0	0	0	22
3520	Ottawa	ground	0	0	0	24

Counties with a comparable file

Gove 554
Kiowa 554
Saline 543
Hamilton 525
Ellis 500
Butler 472
Dickinson 468
Decatur 418
Brown 404
Rawlins 400
Cowley 394
Graham 379
Greeley 367

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.