Water use in Wabaunsee County

312 points of diversion — 0.5% of the Kansas file — reporting 5,885 acre-feet in 2023.

312Points

5,8852023, acre-feet

11,254Acres irrigated

111Reporting use

What the series actually shows — Wabaunsee County

Reported use here peaked in 2012 at 7,435 acre-feet and bottomed in 1993 at 798. 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 4,705 acre-feet a year against 3,142 in the first ten — higher. And the number of points reporting any use moved from 79 to 111: the count of straws in the ground barely changes, whatever the year does to the volume.

Reported use in Wabaunsee 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	3,303	4,226	79
1991	4,350	4,552	84
1992	2,110	3,507	68
1993	798	1,317	39
1994	2,836	5,135	90
1995	2,938	4,629	78
1996	4,014	5,438	86
1997	4,334	5,929	90
1998	2,904	5,801	90
1999	3,830	6,336	96
2000	4,418	6,461	98
2001	4,415	6,661	94
2002	6,289	7,352	105
2003	5,753	7,622	106
2004	2,376	6,564	94
2005	4,686	7,914	106
2006	5,776	8,665	109
2007	3,417	7,828	101
2008	2,416	7,940	91
2009	1,528	5,361	72
2010	3,097	7,783	96
2011	6,289	8,385	105
2012	7,435	8,522	106
2013	5,069	9,027	104
2014	5,673	9,205	108
2015	2,605	8,117	89
2016	3,689	9,915	109
2017	4,750	10,142	110
2018	6,853	9,826	112
2019	3,270	9,716	104
2020	3,972	10,293	109
2021	5,317	11,287	113
2022	5,031	10,574	113
2023	5,885	11,254	111

Where the water comes from

Source	Points	Share
groundwater — a well	173	55.4%
surface water — a river, stream or reservoir	139	44.6%

Which management district

District	Points	Share
Outside any district	312	100.0%

⚠️ What a zero here does not mean

201 of the 312 points in Wabaunsee County report 0 acre-feet for 2023, and 270 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 Wabaunsee County?

312 points of diversion sit in Wabaunsee County, reporting 5,885 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

Wabaunsee 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
11705	Wabaunsee	ground	266	132	0	2
21257	Wabaunsee	surface	250	351	25	0
16640	Wabaunsee	surface	167	124	0	5
4427	Wabaunsee	ground	158	71	197	4
82287	Wabaunsee	ground	150	79	135	23
49188	Wabaunsee	surface	147	79	275	1
82905	Wabaunsee	surface	116	38	212	29
46915	Wabaunsee	ground	116	78	180	4
1345	Wabaunsee	ground	115	79	158	1
79262	Wabaunsee	ground	108	90	188	23
78986	Wabaunsee	ground	104	102	264	25
73752	Wabaunsee	ground	103	93	340	17
78254	Wabaunsee	ground	101	74	114	22
62081	Wabaunsee	ground	97	47	216	8
67700	Wabaunsee	surface	92	98	200	13
73939	Wabaunsee	ground	89	42	119	27
42987	Wabaunsee	ground	87	83	150	4
67065	Wabaunsee	ground	83	83	230	12
87874	Wabaunsee	surface	83	22	195	30
87233	Wabaunsee	ground	82	33	340	29
66854	Wabaunsee	ground	81	64	149	12
80047	Wabaunsee	ground	77	43	98	23
35803	Wabaunsee	ground	77	53	80	4
52819	Wabaunsee	ground	75	42	131	3
41191	Wabaunsee	ground	74	63	340	0
22637	Wabaunsee	ground	74	96	0	2
48621	Wabaunsee	surface	73	48	218	2
80887	Wabaunsee	ground	73	44	77	24
79929	Wabaunsee	ground	72	52	116	23
64463	Wabaunsee	ground	67	41	95	10
81272	Wabaunsee	ground	66	52	152	26
85341	Wabaunsee	ground	65	33	170	28
48362	Wabaunsee	ground	63	42	137	3
1528	Wabaunsee	surface	61	12	114	8
14527	Wabaunsee	ground	60	52	122	7
39387	Wabaunsee	ground	59	56	133	17
64213	Wabaunsee	ground	58	41	156	9
45273	Wabaunsee	surface	56	61	213	6
9012	Wabaunsee	ground	53	27	125	1
65394	Wabaunsee	ground	51	39	67	12
9452	Wabaunsee	ground	51	36	113	2
43823	Wabaunsee	ground	51	31	67	2
77682	Wabaunsee	ground	51	50	90	20
37376	Wabaunsee	ground	48	57	105	3
87182	Wabaunsee	ground	47	24	115	28
27698	Wabaunsee	ground	47	33	114	1
12546	Wabaunsee	ground	47	33	104	6
72933	Wabaunsee	ground	45	26	65	17
68169	Wabaunsee	ground	44	34	136	13
62992	Wabaunsee	ground	44	32	138	8
81926	Wabaunsee	ground	44	33	114	24
81273	Wabaunsee	ground	43	28	60	24
67094	Wabaunsee	ground	43	42	134	13
45013	Wabaunsee	ground	43	26	132	1
53694	Wabaunsee	ground	42	41	0	0
50313	Wabaunsee	ground	42	46	131	5
68346	Wabaunsee	ground	41	24	57	13
6937	Wabaunsee	ground	41	32	114	5
36217	Wabaunsee	ground	41	51	183	0
78991	Wabaunsee	ground	40	44	135	23
86700	Wabaunsee	ground	40	22	75	28
81760	Wabaunsee	ground	40	38	74	24
13044	Wabaunsee	ground	39	13	72	3
4479	Wabaunsee	ground	38	38	64	9
88528	Wabaunsee	surface	38	8	134	32
69413	Wabaunsee	ground	38	29	50	15
14021	Wabaunsee	ground	36	22	78	1
69574	Wabaunsee	ground	36	21	71	14
67093	Wabaunsee	ground	35	37	68	13
4364	Wabaunsee	surface	34	36	75	3
61404	Wabaunsee	ground	32	21	80	7
65393	Wabaunsee	ground	32	15	32	11
6049	Wabaunsee	surface	32	31	225	3
45674	Wabaunsee	ground	30	22	108	4
1631	Wabaunsee	ground	29	27	96	1
68589	Wabaunsee	ground	27	16	20	13
62952	Wabaunsee	ground	26	21	57	9
14162	Wabaunsee	ground	26	7	72	3
20257	Wabaunsee	ground	26	21	40	2
87652	Wabaunsee	ground	26	3	20	29
63192	Wabaunsee	ground	24	18	54	9
34609	Wabaunsee	ground	24	17	110	1
85878	Wabaunsee	ground	24	15	46	27
23462	Wabaunsee	surface	24	14	63	12
7818	Wabaunsee	ground	22	21	37	2
52509	Wabaunsee	ground	22	22	58	1
81011	Wabaunsee	ground	20	16	20	24
8353	Wabaunsee	ground	20	16	66	6
63692	Wabaunsee	ground	20	18	0	12
6695	Wabaunsee	ground	20	16	0	4
64242	Wabaunsee	surface	19	22	60	15
72394	Wabaunsee	ground	19	15	38	21
43534	Wabaunsee	surface	18	25	95	5
84065	Wabaunsee	surface	18	15	65	26
78985	Wabaunsee	ground	17	12	102	24
87097	Wabaunsee	ground	17	10	40	28
10358	Wabaunsee	ground	17	21	46	6
2090	Wabaunsee	ground	16	31	142	4
80999	Wabaunsee	ground	16	15	42	24
11308	Wabaunsee	surface	15	12	33	4
22536	Wabaunsee	ground	13	10	29	2
39146	Wabaunsee	ground	13	15	0	4
3872	Wabaunsee	ground	12	13	0	0
49845	Wabaunsee	ground	11	3	24	7
71220	Wabaunsee	surface	9	7	92	15
65390	Wabaunsee	ground	7	16	5	12
63310	Wabaunsee	ground	6	4	14	10
48169	Wabaunsee	ground	6	4	40	4
43919	Wabaunsee	surface	5	10	77	8
32393	Wabaunsee	ground	5	3	0	6
51305	Wabaunsee	ground	2	1	7	4
264	Wabaunsee	surface	0	0	0	9
1162	Wabaunsee	ground	0	0	0	28
1488	Wabaunsee	ground	0	0	0	16
1497	Wabaunsee	surface	0	29	0	2
1944	Wabaunsee	ground	0	0	0	29
2106	Wabaunsee	surface	0	0	0	34
2265	Wabaunsee	ground	0	0	0	12
2731	Wabaunsee	surface	0	0	0	12
3250	Wabaunsee	surface	0	0	0	34

By source in Wabaunsee County

groundwater — a well — Wabaunsee County 173

Counties with a comparable file

Cowley 394
Graham 379
Greeley 367
Marshall 359
Trego 352
Riley 347
Lane 334
Osborne 311
Douglas 310
Marion 298
Johnson 297
Smith 293
Jefferson 290

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.