Water use in Sumner County

785 points of diversion — 1.3% of the Kansas file — reporting 15,768 acre-feet in 2023.

785Points

15,7682023, acre-feet

17,550Acres irrigated

197Reporting use

What the series actually shows — Sumner County

Reported use here peaked in 2022 at 19,926 acre-feet and bottomed in 2008 at 5,540. 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 12,417 acre-feet a year against 8,600 in the first ten — higher. And the number of points reporting any use moved from 92 to 197: the count of straws in the ground barely changes, whatever the year does to the volume.

Reported use in Sumner 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	9,496	4,727	92
1991	10,291	4,742	94
1992	7,224	4,549	94
1993	8,438	5,300	98
1994	10,094	5,617	101
1995	6,584	5,454	95
1996	8,886	6,728	102
1997	6,876	6,676	99
1998	9,799	7,022	105
1999	8,315	7,264	107
2000	9,217	7,493	101
2001	10,977	7,672	112
2002	11,273	8,418	116
2003	11,605	8,900	120
2004	7,936	9,631	128
2005	10,110	9,676	127
2006	11,736	9,984	131
2007	7,729	9,219	122
2008	5,540	9,683	124
2009	6,699	9,958	127
2010	10,103	10,264	135
2011	14,541	10,388	133
2012	14,052	10,403	134
2013	7,555	11,273	136
2014	10,595	12,339	146
2015	9,486	13,171	157
2016	8,135	14,379	162
2017	13,177	15,649	177
2018	11,311	15,653	181
2019	8,337	15,141	179
2020	13,448	16,282	189
2021	13,990	16,838	190
2022	19,926	17,538	204
2023	15,768	17,550	197

Where the water comes from

Source	Points	Share
groundwater — a well	743	94.6%
surface water — a river, stream or reservoir	42	5.4%

Which management district

District	Points	Share
Outside any district	785	100.0%

⚠️ What a zero here does not mean

588 of the 785 points in Sumner County report 0 acre-feet for 2023, and 716 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 Sumner County?

785 points of diversion sit in Sumner County, reporting 15,768 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

Sumner 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
1097	Sumner	surface	997	1,064	0	2
87359	Sumner	ground	307	94	258	31
85112	Sumner	ground	234	70	272	31
29007	Sumner	ground	198	133	130	0
78742	Sumner	ground	196	198	211	22
51955	Sumner	ground	192	122	130	1
86031	Sumner	ground	189	73	197	27
21519	Sumner	ground	180	142	130	1
84195	Sumner	ground	178	78	120	28
9448	Sumner	ground	178	93	130	3
71498	Sumner	ground	174	76	200	16
64391	Sumner	ground	166	98	130	12
81720	Sumner	ground	164	150	188	24
45641	Sumner	ground	160	81	140	1
20038	Sumner	ground	158	106	160	6
7241	Sumner	ground	153	75	120	1
85941	Sumner	ground	153	60	130	28
14641	Sumner	ground	152	106	130	9
86740	Sumner	ground	148	66	130	29
27018	Sumner	ground	144	113	135	0
84954	Sumner	ground	144	68	135	26
24970	Sumner	ground	142	108	143	4
78729	Sumner	ground	141	119	130	24
86855	Sumner	ground	140	35	171	31
89050	Sumner	ground	138	49	210	32
23468	Sumner	ground	135	92	134	1
87877	Sumner	ground	133	16	130	32
48356	Sumner	ground	132	98	122	1
78494	Sumner	ground	132	161	141	21
85035	Sumner	ground	132	74	150	28
1372	Sumner	ground	130	93	135	1
47924	Sumner	ground	130	92	135	1
81673	Sumner	ground	129	88	260	26
27003	Sumner	ground	127	86	122	1
46918	Sumner	ground	126	93	115	2
2556	Sumner	ground	125	91	120	0
49454	Sumner	ground	122	86	135	5
20540	Sumner	ground	122	88	130	0
48786	Sumner	ground	121	109	0	1
64066	Sumner	ground	119	100	130	11
83946	Sumner	ground	119	78	156	25
83965	Sumner	ground	118	48	120	28
68630	Sumner	ground	113	63	130	27
11951	Sumner	ground	111	98	130	1
39651	Sumner	ground	111	84	250	0
61783	Sumner	ground	111	109	130	8
82161	Sumner	ground	111	75	135	26
77465	Sumner	ground	109	85	108	23
80337	Sumner	ground	109	142	172	23
86350	Sumner	ground	109	46	126	28
81659	Sumner	ground	108	66	126	26
9935	Sumner	ground	107	67	75	0
24220	Sumner	ground	107	56	90	0
52381	Sumner	ground	106	85	130	1
85984	Sumner	ground	106	82	130	28
2247	Sumner	ground	105	81	130	6
35042	Sumner	ground	105	79	100	0
85101	Sumner	ground	104	75	167	27
10877	Sumner	ground	104	94	133	6
66491	Sumner	ground	103	67	125	12
7926	Sumner	ground	101	65	130	6
69535	Sumner	ground	98	73	110	14
89542	Sumner	ground	98	18	140	32
81658	Sumner	ground	97	43	82	25
67809	Sumner	ground	95	74	114	13
52050	Sumner	ground	94	116	122	0
64946	Sumner	surface	94	73	180	11
73286	Sumner	ground	93	73	115	19
84600	Sumner	ground	91	57	104	26
82297	Sumner	ground	90	100	145	24
87062	Sumner	ground	90	28	109	31
78893	Sumner	ground	89	82	130	25
81434	Sumner	ground	88	74	135	25
84186	Sumner	ground	87	40	90	28
53569	Sumner	ground	85	34	140	1
78906	Sumner	ground	84	65	97	25
80658	Sumner	ground	84	57	75	24
77762	Sumner	ground	83	65	79	24
81494	Sumner	ground	83	75	120	25
89247	Sumner	ground	82	18	86	32
84806	Sumner	ground	81	35	96	28
64985	Sumner	ground	81	86	98	12
67039	Sumner	ground	81	61	65	13
80391	Sumner	ground	81	78	121	25
8961	Sumner	ground	81	56	77	9
80918	Sumner	ground	80	63	116	26
1865	Sumner	ground	78	69	113	6
68586	Sumner	ground	77	48	100	14
68791	Sumner	ground	77	70	124	14
80321	Sumner	ground	77	75	70	23
63350	Sumner	ground	75	45	135	13
16645	Sumner	ground	74	15	121	7
2911	Sumner	ground	73	48	0	0
34804	Sumner	ground	72	48	120	6
46259	Sumner	ground	72	73	108	6
64374	Sumner	surface	72	44	66	12
41894	Sumner	ground	71	39	135	1
82959	Sumner	ground	70	59	65	26
10514	Sumner	ground	69	43	80	0
64766	Sumner	ground	68	40	128	10
81992	Sumner	ground	68	40	76	28
84581	Sumner	ground	66	53	127	26
86852	Sumner	ground	66	29	80	31
81353	Sumner	ground	65	43	66	26
5675	Sumner	ground	64	75	0	3
76615	Sumner	ground	62	43	0	25
76616	Sumner	ground	62	44	0	25
23909	Sumner	ground	61	35	0	2
77290	Sumner	ground	61	52	88	20
86105	Sumner	ground	61	19	110	32
63351	Sumner	ground	60	63	107	11
67808	Sumner	ground	60	55	79	13
16159	Sumner	ground	59	71	140	1
30680	Sumner	ground	58	39	63	8
84543	Sumner	ground	58	46	70	25
80656	Sumner	ground	55	92	135	24
17655	Sumner	ground	54	53	72	1
86792	Sumner	ground	54	36	126	28
65663	Sumner	ground	53	41	123	11
80301	Sumner	ground	53	42	125	24

Counties with a comparable file

Seward 1,005
Thomas 995
Harvey 989
Meade 967
Sheridan 961
Barton 902
Norton 812
Rice 752
Republic 721
Hodgeman 700
Cloud 685
Cheyenne 676
Washington 663

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.