Water use in Rawlins County

400 points of diversion — 0.7% of the Kansas file — reporting 16,162 acre-feet in 2023.

400Points

16,1622023, acre-feet

20,820Acres irrigated

228Reporting use

What the series actually shows — Rawlins County

Reported use here peaked in 2000 at 26,625 acre-feet and bottomed in 1992 at 10,117. 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 18,339 acre-feet a year against 16,666 in the first ten — higher. And the number of points reporting any use moved from 212 to 228: the count of straws in the ground barely changes, whatever the year does to the volume.

Reported use in Rawlins 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	23,043	17,331	212
1991	20,273	16,397	206
1992	10,117	14,753	190
1993	11,446	15,300	193
1994	16,870	17,909	210
1995	18,114	19,293	210
1996	14,188	17,245	190
1997	20,657	18,210	205
1998	18,423	18,084	211
1999	13,532	17,591	190
2000	26,625	18,345	208
2001	17,207	18,376	197
2002	24,351	19,131	215
2003	20,739	19,222	213
2004	22,456	20,211	209
2005	18,947	18,816	205
2006	19,773	18,971	208
2007	17,353	18,830	204
2008	16,598	18,141	201
2009	12,876	17,879	198
2010	15,174	17,977	204
2011	18,137	18,462	216
2012	25,874	19,368	224
2013	22,875	19,861	227
2014	18,881	20,019	225
2015	19,589	20,809	229
2016	17,756	20,331	227
2017	16,337	20,838	234
2018	16,460	20,530	224
2019	11,594	20,680	219
2020	21,041	20,992	226
2021	20,207	21,164	227
2022	25,359	20,601	229
2023	16,162	20,820	228

Where the water comes from

Source	Points	Share
groundwater — a well	389	97.2%
surface water — a river, stream or reservoir	11	2.8%

Which management district

District	Points	Share
Northwest Kansas GMD 4	203	50.8%
Outside any district	197	49.2%

⚠️ What a zero here does not mean

172 of the 400 points in Rawlins County report 0 acre-feet for 2023, and 239 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 Rawlins County?

400 points of diversion sit in Rawlins County, reporting 16,162 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

Rawlins 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
40244	Rawlins	ground	310	234	240	0
37022	Rawlins	ground	307	240	240	0
21367	Rawlins	ground	236	206	240	0
14784	Rawlins	ground	219	261	240	0
10038	Rawlins	ground	214	242	240	0
79011	Rawlins	ground	213	223	244	22
46948	Rawlins	ground	208	239	240	1
18579	Rawlins	ground	196	215	240	0
31035	Rawlins	ground	185	231	180	1
52562	Rawlins	ground	180	144	244	0
11478	Rawlins	ground	177	212	190	0
19091	Rawlins	ground	175	67	122	0
22595	Rawlins	ground	172	138	112	1
64356	Rawlins	ground	170	85	127	10
40545	Rawlins	ground	164	143	155	2
8534	Rawlins	ground	160	156	120	0
5553	Rawlins	ground	157	162	186	0
66302	Rawlins	ground	157	126	111	11
35700	Rawlins	ground	155	224	240	1
80667	Rawlins	ground	154	109	0	22
70441	Rawlins	ground	154	172	195	22
74120	Rawlins	ground	150	148	120	17
4130	Rawlins	ground	148	67	138	1
18153	Rawlins	ground	144	217	162	1
66155	Rawlins	ground	144	120	147	11
36718	Rawlins	ground	136	150	122	1
4368	Rawlins	ground	135	130	106	1
20360	Rawlins	ground	134	72	92	2
52304	Rawlins	ground	130	57	62	3
36122	Rawlins	ground	128	110	62	1
51564	Rawlins	ground	128	107	120	2
11665	Rawlins	ground	128	132	83	0
11018	Rawlins	ground	120	161	120	3
12603	Rawlins	ground	120	68	111	1
23924	Rawlins	ground	120	110	118	1
45864	Rawlins	ground	118	101	104	1
71020	Rawlins	ground	114	112	148	17
16346	Rawlins	ground	113	97	130	3
22254	Rawlins	ground	111	155	120	1
63001	Rawlins	ground	108	150	127	8
68742	Rawlins	ground	108	138	120	13
35030	Rawlins	ground	107	145	115	0
36269	Rawlins	ground	107	107	115	0
45228	Rawlins	ground	106	121	120	0
36997	Rawlins	ground	103	86	118	1
80590	Rawlins	ground	103	95	153	25
37513	Rawlins	ground	102	116	105	2
54862	Rawlins	ground	101	109	78	2
5036	Rawlins	ground	100	74	120	0
36532	Rawlins	ground	100	113	120	3
36846	Rawlins	ground	100	144	124	1
38086	Rawlins	ground	99	118	110	0
34098	Rawlins	ground	97	132	120	1
21120	Rawlins	ground	96	103	115	1
29167	Rawlins	ground	94	101	60	0
128	Rawlins	ground	94	89	120	1
39025	Rawlins	ground	94	94	135	1
31053	Rawlins	ground	94	83	72	0
1120	Rawlins	ground	93	100	200	1
29597	Rawlins	ground	93	9	55	10
54819	Rawlins	ground	93	125	85	1
30586	Rawlins	ground	92	60	90	5
47174	Rawlins	ground	92	73	66	0
49551	Rawlins	ground	92	91	120	1
3834	Rawlins	ground	91	102	122	0
52735	Rawlins	ground	91	134	124	1
65723	Rawlins	ground	91	96	138	12
9220	Rawlins	ground	90	82	70	1
49469	Rawlins	ground	90	63	100	1
67843	Rawlins	ground	90	51	70	12
547	Rawlins	ground	89	108	120	1
14860	Rawlins	ground	89	74	64	0
23466	Rawlins	ground	89	119	101	7
38751	Rawlins	ground	87	54	138	1
20149	Rawlins	ground	86	103	120	0
47293	Rawlins	ground	86	68	56	2
41803	Rawlins	ground	84	88	122	0
82401	Rawlins	ground	84	75	64	23
2435	Rawlins	ground	83	145	240	0
31873	Rawlins	ground	83	116	94	3
39513	Rawlins	ground	82	72	130	0
9929	Rawlins	ground	81	133	115	2
11587	Rawlins	ground	81	122	126	1
80106	Rawlins	ground	79	100	110	22
33137	Rawlins	ground	78	84	70	0
3085	Rawlins	ground	77	110	96	1
15283	Rawlins	ground	76	76	160	0
53619	Rawlins	ground	76	109	115	1
78212	Rawlins	ground	74	61	0	21
31961	Rawlins	ground	74	105	84	1
65676	Rawlins	ground	74	78	95	12
5817	Rawlins	ground	73	55	65	2
69898	Rawlins	ground	72	129	200	14
13314	Rawlins	ground	71	126	120	0
1134	Rawlins	ground	70	94	81	0
37775	Rawlins	ground	70	35	0	23
71023	Rawlins	ground	69	97	105	17
28829	Rawlins	ground	69	77	86	1
24458	Rawlins	ground	68	86	92	4
8480	Rawlins	ground	66	94	98	9
29929	Rawlins	ground	66	51	160	1
35982	Rawlins	ground	65	72	58	2
42778	Rawlins	ground	65	88	98	2
75021	Rawlins	ground	64	45	93	28
43465	Rawlins	ground	64	48	61	1
78209	Rawlins	ground	64	90	0	21
13457	Rawlins	ground	63	80	80	0
38472	Rawlins	ground	63	82	122	0
53251	Rawlins	ground	63	91	72	1
14423	Rawlins	ground	62	98	180	1
3071	Rawlins	ground	60	67	75	0
20714	Rawlins	ground	60	77	80	0
22424	Rawlins	ground	60	53	81	0
21147	Rawlins	ground	58	44	54	0
21738	Rawlins	ground	57	55	200	1
14745	Rawlins	ground	56	27	89	12
40926	Rawlins	ground	56	68	95	4
44032	Rawlins	ground	56	64	35	0
54106	Rawlins	ground	56	73	76	1
6401	Rawlins	ground	55	86	86	0

Counties with a comparable file

Hamilton 525
Ellis 500
Butler 472
Dickinson 468
Ottawa 467
Decatur 418
Brown 404
Cowley 394
Graham 379
Greeley 367
Marshall 359
Trego 352
Riley 347

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.