Water use in Smith County

293 points of diversion — 0.5% of the Kansas file — reporting 2,611 acre-feet in 2023.

293Points

2,6112023, acre-feet

3,499Acres irrigated

89Reporting use

What the series actually shows — Smith County

Reported use here peaked in 1991 at 6,065 acre-feet and bottomed in 1993 at 739. 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 2,700 acre-feet a year against 3,757 in the first ten — lower. And the number of points reporting any use moved from 149 to 89: the count of straws in the ground barely changes, whatever the year does to the volume.

Reported use in Smith 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	4,773	5,227	149
1991	6,065	5,683	154
1992	2,739	3,588	111
1993	739	708	38
1994	3,081	3,717	103
1995	4,118	4,309	121
1996	3,414	4,031	108
1997	4,250	5,369	113
1998	4,152	4,715	113
1999	4,243	4,751	115
2000	5,093	5,199	126
2001	4,102	4,394	120
2002	4,952	4,854	124
2003	4,545	4,575	119
2004	3,727	3,868	109
2005	2,939	3,977	102
2006	3,243	3,445	96
2007	1,770	2,403	77
2008	1,565	2,562	83
2009	1,973	2,768	83
2010	1,685	2,597	73
2011	1,980	3,192	84
2012	3,844	3,813	90
2013	2,730	3,711	89
2014	2,686	3,688	86
2015	2,867	4,259	96
2016	2,621	4,464	92
2017	3,186	4,065	96
2018	2,170	3,420	88
2019	2,191	3,214	88
2020	2,573	3,590	94
2021	2,987	3,358	88
2022	3,104	3,344	90
2023	2,611	3,499	89

Where the water comes from

Source	Points	Share
groundwater — a well	210	71.7%
surface water — a river, stream or reservoir	83	28.3%

Which management district

District	Points	Share
Outside any district	293	100.0%

⚠️ What a zero here does not mean

204 of the 293 points in Smith County report 0 acre-feet for 2023, and 240 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 Smith County?

293 points of diversion sit in Smith County, reporting 2,611 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

Smith 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
88498	Smith	ground	150	36	0	31
68895	Smith	ground	148	126	120	13
8164	Smith	ground	141	135	0	0
19561	Smith	ground	135	108	0	0
60558	Smith	ground	119	116	137	7
73075	Smith	ground	96	86	79	20
20922	Smith	surface	81	28	135	3
88026	Smith	ground	79	8	0	33
13438	Smith	ground	76	42	120	1
60856	Smith	ground	57	63	0	8
37149	Smith	ground	57	38	40	2
34124	Smith	ground	56	77	121	1
19647	Smith	ground	56	43	0	0
15727	Smith	ground	51	50	128	1
45343	Smith	surface	50	53	94	2
16021	Smith	ground	49	41	37	1
26949	Smith	ground	44	38	43	6
33698	Smith	ground	44	45	0	0
51785	Smith	ground	43	28	79	0
52545	Smith	ground	42	48	92	1
13404	Smith	ground	42	52	135	4
71429	Smith	ground	39	47	119	15
51784	Smith	ground	38	12	107	10
13974	Smith	ground	35	12	10	1
42885	Smith	ground	32	29	80	5
84596	Smith	ground	32	20	0	27
33406	Smith	ground	31	38	48	2
26159	Smith	ground	29	36	70	1
41195	Smith	ground	29	26	120	2
42844	Smith	ground	28	34	105	8
52154	Smith	ground	28	25	25	2
3154	Smith	ground	27	22	8	1
66257	Smith	surface	27	41	60	12
28672	Smith	ground	24	10	17	5
26810	Smith	ground	24	29	51	1
43656	Smith	ground	24	22	30	10
20156	Smith	ground	23	24	26	8
12491	Smith	ground	23	36	58	1
24368	Smith	ground	22	30	35	4
29231	Smith	ground	22	32	120	3
31623	Smith	ground	22	30	70	1
12584	Smith	ground	21	28	62	0
28898	Smith	ground	21	45	19	1
83866	Smith	ground	21	36	122	26
23493	Smith	ground	20	36	0	0
7032	Smith	ground	20	19	13	2
24788	Smith	ground	18	29	63	2
39178	Smith	ground	17	12	16	3
7692	Smith	ground	17	12	0	3
31187	Smith	ground	15	9	20	2
33234	Smith	ground	15	21	20	4
37832	Smith	ground	14	6	74	11
35969	Smith	ground	14	14	45	12
53548	Smith	ground	14	29	23	3
7125	Smith	ground	13	32	46	1
54517	Smith	ground	13	9	17	2
17999	Smith	ground	11	11	0	0
61579	Smith	ground	11	12	0	9
17992	Smith	ground	11	28	67	1
16813	Smith	ground	11	10	0	15
78627	Smith	ground	10	10	18	25
11651	Smith	ground	10	13	0	11
44318	Smith	ground	9	17	0	0
21484	Smith	ground	9	8	0	0
39227	Smith	ground	8	3	24	4
33034	Smith	ground	8	2	51	29
30365	Smith	ground	8	6	20	2
42140	Smith	ground	8	4	76	13
53514	Smith	ground	7	3	0	14
54289	Smith	ground	7	11	45	13
37755	Smith	ground	7	6	42	17
70929	Smith	ground	7	6	15	14
77899	Smith	ground	6	8	0	23
7913	Smith	ground	5	26	30	9
25441	Smith	ground	4	4	8	2
52323	Smith	ground	4	7	27	3
11108	Smith	ground	4	1	0	7
44479	Smith	ground	3	2	0	10
67397	Smith	ground	2	3	0	12
72236	Smith	ground	2	3	0	16
14993	Smith	ground	2	2	4	0
43777	Smith	ground	2	2	5	6
40785	Smith	ground	2	3	0	2
31191	Smith	ground	1	2	0	0
50266	Smith	ground	1	4	8	0
47115	Smith	ground	1	3	0	1
13307	Smith	ground	0	0	0	25
73787	Smith	ground	0	0	0	30
65148	Smith	ground	0	1	0	11
44	Smith	ground	0	0	0	18
270	Smith	surface	0	0	0	34
525	Smith	surface	0	0	0	34
1942	Smith	ground	0	23	0	4
1979	Smith	ground	0	0	0	31
2186	Smith	surface	0	0	0	12
2266	Smith	ground	0	0	0	34
2730	Smith	ground	0	0	0	7
3296	Smith	ground	0	0	0	20
4169	Smith	surface	0	0	0	34
4267	Smith	ground	0	0	0	26
4428	Smith	surface	0	3	0	14
4753	Smith	ground	0	1	0	9
5988	Smith	ground	0	0	0	14
6051	Smith	surface	0	0	0	10
6456	Smith	surface	0	0	0	10
7009	Smith	ground	0	0	0	34
7065	Smith	surface	0	0	0	34
7360	Smith	surface	0	0	0	31
7766	Smith	ground	0	30	0	4
8722	Smith	ground	0	0	0	11
8830	Smith	surface	0	0	0	20
9795	Smith	ground	0	19	0	4
9932	Smith	ground	0	9	0	6
10080	Smith	ground	0	1	0	10
10206	Smith	surface	0	0	0	34
10321	Smith	surface	0	0	0	34
10389	Smith	ground	0	0	0	19
10706	Smith	surface	0	0	0	24
11185	Smith	surface	0	0	0	34
11340	Smith	surface	0	47	0	7

Counties with a comparable file

Riley 347
Lane 334
Wabaunsee 312
Osborne 311
Douglas 310
Marion 298
Johnson 297
Jefferson 290
Barber 289
Rooks 284
Mitchell 274
Ness 274
Geary 261

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.