Water use in Rice County

752 points of diversion — 1.3% of the Kansas file — reporting 30,140 acre-feet in 2023.

752Points

30,1402023, acre-feet

23,735Acres irrigated

296Reporting use

What the series actually shows — Rice County

Reported use here peaked in 2011 at 37,875 acre-feet and bottomed in 1993 at 17,211. 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 27,887 acre-feet a year against 26,365 in the first ten — higher. And the number of points reporting any use moved from 248 to 296: the count of straws in the ground barely changes, whatever the year does to the volume.

Reported use in Rice 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	32,389	20,245	248
1991	34,622	21,182	252
1992	18,031	20,546	241
1993	17,211	19,863	228
1994	31,204	21,450	256
1995	24,422	20,631	239
1996	25,373	21,446	255
1997	24,753	21,817	262
1998	28,462	22,169	265
1999	27,181	22,835	274
2000	30,762	22,852	270
2001	35,509	23,522	274
2002	30,129	23,267	277
2003	36,667	23,142	275
2004	25,376	23,998	271
2005	28,493	23,219	276
2006	32,785	23,392	279
2007	22,271	22,824	278
2008	19,273	22,515	287
2009	22,542	22,367	283
2010	28,533	22,537	286
2011	37,875	22,676	294
2012	36,644	22,439	292
2013	25,659	22,858	295
2014	26,476	23,055	295
2015	28,885	23,069	295
2016	22,835	23,182	296
2017	27,863	23,133	293
2018	24,488	23,133	299
2019	23,546	23,131	293
2020	27,616	23,339	300
2021	29,721	23,517	303
2022	37,301	23,515	304
2023	30,140	23,735	296

Where the water comes from

Source	Points	Share
groundwater — a well	735	97.7%
surface water — a river, stream or reservoir	17	2.3%

Which management district

District	Points	Share
Big Bend GMD 5	500	66.5%
Outside any district	252	33.5%

⚠️ What a zero here does not mean

456 of the 752 points in Rice County report 0 acre-feet for 2023, and 564 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 Rice County?

752 points of diversion sit in Rice County, reporting 30,140 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

Rice 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
4993	Rice	ground	798	339	0	0
36885	Rice	ground	566	630	0	0
13340	Rice	ground	565	618	0	0
30093	Rice	ground	377	179	0	2
3197	Rice	ground	339	290	0	0
54611	Rice	ground	339	334	0	0
64975	Rice	ground	336	340	0	18
7671	Rice	ground	293	326	0	0
71370	Rice	ground	280	130	250	15
41001	Rice	ground	277	315	0	18
3020	Rice	ground	256	260	0	0
12828	Rice	ground	243	222	0	1
31217	Rice	ground	226	157	173	1
47951	Rice	ground	225	247	0	5
11585	Rice	ground	215	212	0	0
14591	Rice	ground	208	211	170	1
70457	Rice	ground	208	176	209	14
48051	Rice	ground	203	26	0	6
84381	Rice	ground	196	149	153	25
46527	Rice	ground	192	167	130	1
36691	Rice	ground	190	132	130	1
34937	Rice	ground	180	109	130	3
8386	Rice	ground	180	168	135	0
81715	Rice	ground	180	167	130	23
36138	Rice	ground	178	119	114	1
35152	Rice	ground	178	136	130	1
19271	Rice	ground	176	127	120	0
74338	Rice	ground	175	42	130	29
35781	Rice	ground	175	143	144	1
5779	Rice	ground	174	133	149	0
52321	Rice	ground	169	144	130	0
9469	Rice	ground	169	144	133	0
47164	Rice	ground	168	97	130	3
65657	Rice	ground	167	143	150	11
61035	Rice	ground	166	142	130	7
64468	Rice	ground	165	143	120	10
66929	Rice	ground	165	133	160	12
74769	Rice	ground	162	128	130	17
68772	Rice	ground	160	150	126	13
19194	Rice	ground	160	116	120	0
24632	Rice	ground	158	122	130	0
31316	Rice	ground	158	131	130	0
33079	Rice	ground	158	125	172	0
10417	Rice	ground	157	147	132	0
89320	Rice	ground	156	45	185	32
27800	Rice	ground	156	139	130	2
33008	Rice	ground	156	105	131	0
36315	Rice	ground	155	165	138	0
16435	Rice	ground	154	111	115	0
61005	Rice	ground	153	128	160	7
18998	Rice	ground	153	133	130	0
60302	Rice	ground	151	114	129	9
31125	Rice	ground	150	73	127	0
22460	Rice	ground	150	136	130	0
12360	Rice	ground	149	136	113	3
55023	Rice	ground	149	75	185	11
48468	Rice	ground	149	123	130	0
325	Rice	ground	149	128	113	3
76846	Rice	ground	148	128	128	19
17471	Rice	ground	148	131	127	2
51467	Rice	ground	146	135	144	0
41646	Rice	ground	145	123	130	0
15944	Rice	ground	145	117	130	7
18323	Rice	ground	145	89	130	0
86003	Rice	ground	145	105	130	27
15177	Rice	ground	144	82	106	2
33923	Rice	ground	144	126	130	0
65553	Rice	ground	144	112	0	12
26349	Rice	ground	143	103	100	0
21099	Rice	ground	142	139	131	0
29746	Rice	ground	142	112	120	0
64822	Rice	ground	142	127	130	11
27479	Rice	ground	142	91	130	1
32264	Rice	ground	141	128	114	2
35062	Rice	ground	141	103	114	9
64769	Rice	ground	140	124	130	11
1925	Rice	ground	140	142	130	0
11237	Rice	ground	140	135	130	0
79397	Rice	ground	139	90	126	22
48064	Rice	ground	138	115	130	8
48954	Rice	ground	138	123	135	0
20147	Rice	ground	134	136	160	0
81150	Rice	ground	133	107	130	26
41712	Rice	ground	131	114	137	5
26807	Rice	ground	131	102	120	4
23502	Rice	ground	131	117	130	0
74519	Rice	ground	130	105	133	18
2439	Rice	ground	129	124	130	0
51242	Rice	ground	129	99	130	1
32171	Rice	ground	128	110	121	0
36821	Rice	ground	127	126	154	0
88008	Rice	ground	125	64	135	30
54400	Rice	ground	125	132	120	0
9592	Rice	ground	125	100	130	0
13300	Rice	ground	125	140	131	0
6442	Rice	ground	124	129	130	0
26850	Rice	ground	123	130	125	0
83	Rice	ground	123	120	130	2
9058	Rice	ground	123	104	130	1
88723	Rice	ground	122	50	130	31
43101	Rice	ground	122	111	128	1
29800	Rice	ground	120	109	130	1
47032	Rice	ground	119	106	0	7
52415	Rice	ground	119	123	130	0
35601	Rice	ground	119	91	0	0
89263	Rice	ground	118	31	130	32
19275	Rice	ground	118	107	130	1
61175	Rice	ground	117	161	146	8
25838	Rice	ground	117	113	132	0
54133	Rice	ground	117	122	130	0
70979	Rice	ground	117	136	142	14
31029	Rice	ground	117	95	125	1
51322	Rice	ground	117	105	130	0
36728	Rice	ground	115	111	0	1
89265	Rice	ground	114	32	135	32
51474	Rice	ground	114	116	125	6
48994	Rice	ground	113	102	121	2
29533	Rice	ground	113	73	120	1
18713	Rice	ground	112	84	80	0
37276	Rice	ground	112	85	90	1

Counties with a comparable file

Thomas 995
Harvey 989
Meade 967
Sheridan 961
Barton 902
Norton 812
Sumner 785
Republic 721
Hodgeman 700
Cloud 685
Cheyenne 676
Washington 663
Clay 654

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.