Water use in Rush County

558 points of diversion — 0.9% of the Kansas file — reporting 9,321 acre-feet in 2023.

558Points

9,3212023, acre-feet

11,325Acres irrigated

194Reporting use

What the series actually shows — Rush County

Reported use here peaked in 1991 at 16,622 acre-feet and bottomed in 1992 at 1,609. 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 8,755 acre-feet a year against 8,311 in the first ten — higher. And the number of points reporting any use moved from 245 to 194: the count of straws in the ground barely changes, whatever the year does to the volume.

Reported use in Rush 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	14,257	11,299	245
1991	16,622	11,658	249
1992	1,609	4,448	102
1993	1,830	3,964	109
1994	10,511	10,854	236
1995	10,994	10,647	238
1996	7,818	9,948	212
1997	5,741	9,761	198
1998	6,595	9,963	206
1999	7,129	10,728	212
2000	10,471	11,255	220
2001	11,556	11,790	217
2002	12,156	11,667	225
2003	11,745	11,356	220
2004	5,728	11,082	180
2005	9,012	10,965	208
2006	10,025	10,557	203
2007	7,956	10,106	192
2008	6,574	9,904	188
2009	8,947	10,125	199
2010	9,417	10,614	201
2011	14,636	11,552	214
2012	14,088	11,660	215
2013	10,320	11,517	206
2014	8,720	11,294	208
2015	10,826	11,117	203
2016	6,976	10,346	185
2017	11,005	11,077	193
2018	8,064	10,588	193
2019	5,949	8,743	169
2020	5,565	9,281	171
2021	9,075	11,293	189
2022	12,046	11,001	197
2023	9,321	11,325	194

Where the water comes from

Source	Points	Share
groundwater — a well	497	89.1%
surface water — a river, stream or reservoir	61	10.9%

Which management district

District	Points	Share
Outside any district	558	100.0%

⚠️ What a zero here does not mean

364 of the 558 points in Rush County report 0 acre-feet for 2023, and 459 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 Rush County?

558 points of diversion sit in Rush County, reporting 9,321 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

Rush 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
72407	Rush	ground	182	141	173	16
3736	Rush	ground	156	109	137	2
50196	Rush	ground	133	47	77	2
69818	Rush	ground	127	94	73	14
66373	Rush	ground	125	82	259	11
31751	Rush	ground	114	68	110	2
42539	Rush	ground	111	77	0	5
35662	Rush	ground	110	93	0	0
528	Rush	ground	110	72	73	1
38160	Rush	ground	105	83	144	1
9757	Rush	ground	104	28	245	21
85127	Rush	ground	104	73	120	26
35992	Rush	ground	98	79	128	6
13141	Rush	ground	97	43	160	7
21403	Rush	ground	97	70	259	0
51856	Rush	ground	95	132	0	3
16558	Rush	ground	85	67	92	2
43599	Rush	ground	85	45	0	1
19024	Rush	ground	85	48	53	5
77687	Rush	ground	84	102	38	20
63809	Rush	ground	84	69	123	9
77964	Rush	ground	83	96	128	20
51777	Rush	ground	80	63	120	22
77959	Rush	ground	80	124	98	20
66142	Rush	ground	80	67	76	11
13326	Rush	ground	79	50	54	1
60608	Rush	ground	77	69	80	7
2149	Rush	ground	76	48	58	0
14897	Rush	ground	76	62	120	1
41343	Rush	ground	75	57	58	2
43437	Rush	ground	74	73	100	2
5832	Rush	ground	73	48	0	0
16467	Rush	ground	71	86	85	7
24539	Rush	ground	70	60	50	2
7764	Rush	ground	70	26	80	7
34665	Rush	surface	69	66	75	3
8045	Rush	ground	69	55	113	0
37722	Rush	ground	69	71	105	1
53691	Rush	ground	67	79	77	2
53401	Rush	ground	67	54	61	3
51965	Rush	ground	66	85	85	4
60659	Rush	ground	66	56	50	7
80354	Rush	ground	66	54	67	22
88276	Rush	ground	65	27	115	30
83159	Rush	ground	65	59	71	24
82482	Rush	ground	65	80	121	23
72655	Rush	ground	64	74	80	17
5237	Rush	ground	64	77	105	1
81940	Rush	ground	64	70	59	23
31663	Rush	ground	64	50	45	4
14425	Rush	ground	64	49	61	5
82708	Rush	ground	63	48	45	24
24118	Rush	ground	63	55	120	1
63346	Rush	ground	62	44	44	9
78891	Rush	ground	61	63	60	21
17994	Rush	ground	60	27	40	5
82310	Rush	ground	60	46	61	23
31284	Rush	ground	60	59	37	1
60993	Rush	ground	60	46	60	7
13900	Rush	ground	60	65	68	0
49603	Rush	ground	60	26	77	8
84275	Rush	ground	59	79	79	25
78663	Rush	ground	59	22	43	21
62513	Rush	ground	59	21	36	9
30400	Rush	ground	58	50	68	1
31734	Rush	ground	58	31	81	5
32903	Rush	ground	57	42	58	1
61145	Rush	ground	57	20	38	7
18127	Rush	ground	57	52	90	1
65953	Rush	ground	57	52	58	11
60621	Rush	ground	57	47	50	7
78145	Rush	ground	57	48	39	21
23879	Rush	ground	57	42	60	3
5646	Rush	ground	56	58	71	2
26767	Rush	ground	54	51	62	5
32863	Rush	ground	54	85	102	0
53688	Rush	ground	53	37	37	1
4069	Rush	ground	53	31	25	9
84604	Rush	ground	53	40	35	25
53603	Rush	ground	53	17	71	5
67762	Rush	ground	53	33	43	12
88662	Rush	ground	53	25	120	31
63491	Rush	ground	52	35	43	9
72634	Rush	ground	52	44	56	16
84620	Rush	ground	52	43	0	25
80259	Rush	ground	52	100	117	22
53597	Rush	ground	52	80	122	2
15986	Rush	ground	51	51	73	1
35534	Rush	ground	51	39	27	4
1941	Rush	ground	50	54	65	1
82034	Rush	ground	50	24	46	24
46943	Rush	ground	50	42	33	3
47935	Rush	ground	50	56	73	2
88908	Rush	ground	49	10	36	32
15485	Rush	ground	49	33	52	14
65010	Rush	ground	49	52	69	10
8792	Rush	ground	49	16	60	14
71691	Rush	ground	49	32	80	16
76325	Rush	ground	49	57	124	19
89433	Rush	ground	48	9	37	32
75101	Rush	ground	48	46	48	18
7565	Rush	ground	48	33	69	5
67646	Rush	ground	46	45	35	12
60873	Rush	ground	46	35	34	7
52632	Rush	ground	46	52	72	2
88558	Rush	ground	45	13	55	31
75417	Rush	ground	44	47	50	18
49905	Rush	ground	44	31	40	3
8839	Rush	ground	44	41	40	4
7297	Rush	ground	43	26	64	2
72637	Rush	ground	41	54	60	16
12623	Rush	ground	41	45	89	1
15200	Rush	ground	41	37	60	4
65398	Rush	ground	40	31	51	10
29765	Rush	ground	40	30	21	4
76398	Rush	ground	40	31	43	19
76469	Rush	ground	40	47	52	19
25866	Rush	ground	39	49	46	0
83984	Rush	ground	39	29	58	25
51727	Rush	ground	38	41	78	1

Counties with a comparable file

Clay 654
Phillips 637
Pottawatomie 636
Wallace 621
Morton 601
Shawnee 601
Kingman 599
Gove 554
Kiowa 554
Saline 543
Hamilton 525
Ellis 500
Butler 472

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.