Water use in Wallace County

621 points of diversion — 1.0% of the Kansas file — reporting 29,999 acre-feet in 2023.

621Points

29,9992023, acre-feet

41,954Acres irrigated

277Reporting use

What the series actually shows — Wallace County

Reported use here peaked in 1990 at 95,533 acre-feet and bottomed in 2023 at 29,999. 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 39,761 acre-feet a year against 72,394 in the first ten — lower. And the number of points reporting any use moved from 423 to 277: the count of straws in the ground barely changes, whatever the year does to the volume.

Reported use in Wallace 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	95,533	59,950	423
1991	87,504	60,361	429
1992	68,130	56,743	420
1993	54,856	58,275	423
1994	75,737	59,008	426
1995	69,223	57,483	415
1996	81,011	61,715	421
1997	64,845	60,973	423
1998	66,678	61,033	415
1999	60,426	60,709	422
2000	82,348	61,197	413
2001	71,349	61,078	419
2002	85,780	59,853	416
2003	69,149	57,233	409
2004	56,759	57,185	394
2005	56,525	55,480	376
2006	61,419	56,479	377
2007	56,030	54,699	369
2008	57,169	55,106	366
2009	48,180	53,490	366
2010	49,846	52,354	347
2011	60,136	51,139	344
2012	68,686	51,027	345
2013	55,924	49,211	337
2014	51,761	48,927	331
2015	40,570	48,894	331
2016	39,362	47,320	321
2017	30,449	45,412	319
2018	34,527	44,447	316
2019	31,210	42,316	295
2020	49,834	42,853	301
2021	38,573	42,372	288
2022	51,319	42,904	293
2023	29,999	41,954	277

Where the water comes from

Source	Points	Share
groundwater — a well	613	98.7%
surface water — a river, stream or reservoir	8	1.3%

Which management district

District	Points	Share
Western Kansas GMD 1	513	82.6%
Outside any district	97	15.6%
Northwest Kansas GMD 4	11	1.8%

⚠️ What a zero here does not mean

344 of the 621 points in Wallace County report 0 acre-feet for 2023, and 356 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 Wallace County?

621 points of diversion sit in Wallace County, reporting 29,999 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

Wallace 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
15314	Wallace	ground	399	158	485	5
22617	Wallace	ground	382	361	438	1
2433	Wallace	ground	360	305	240	0
71887	Wallace	ground	352	286	300	15
10214	Wallace	ground	338	367	350	1
24299	Wallace	ground	337	282	357	1
35117	Wallace	ground	332	252	187	1
10805	Wallace	ground	301	353	330	0
16268	Wallace	ground	296	288	240	0
28595	Wallace	ground	294	345	300	1
29571	Wallace	ground	290	346	275	2
11214	Wallace	ground	290	129	192	1
6078	Wallace	ground	279	287	246	0
47222	Wallace	ground	270	320	370	0
51436	Wallace	ground	267	211	250	0
19791	Wallace	ground	261	354	375	0
3499	Wallace	ground	256	294	463	4
55016	Wallace	ground	256	346	246	2
20927	Wallace	ground	253	344	244	8
20905	Wallace	ground	249	275	242	0
33160	Wallace	ground	247	300	293	8
33499	Wallace	ground	245	231	500	2
24277	Wallace	ground	244	344	250	0
15834	Wallace	ground	243	322	238	0
26311	Wallace	ground	239	324	246	0
81110	Wallace	ground	225	233	265	23
32374	Wallace	ground	221	169	230	0
37554	Wallace	ground	219	228	280	0
18398	Wallace	ground	214	318	231	0
37594	Wallace	ground	213	252	180	0
12137	Wallace	ground	210	287	266	0
35674	Wallace	ground	209	232	250	0
38901	Wallace	ground	209	164	212	0
38105	Wallace	ground	208	140	240	1
4720	Wallace	ground	205	221	215	0
85807	Wallace	ground	204	163	360	27
46496	Wallace	ground	203	260	246	3
12156	Wallace	ground	199	267	240	0
52837	Wallace	ground	192	233	183	6
43314	Wallace	ground	191	186	246	2
228	Wallace	ground	190	230	208	0
44646	Wallace	ground	188	223	245	1
31848	Wallace	ground	187	309	246	0
28430	Wallace	ground	186	241	180	0
4266	Wallace	ground	185	213	188	0
24801	Wallace	ground	184	165	0	2
30670	Wallace	ground	183	220	249	2
30561	Wallace	ground	183	286	375	0
40052	Wallace	ground	183	227	183	0
46656	Wallace	ground	181	183	200	0
50287	Wallace	ground	181	240	500	0
8460	Wallace	ground	178	163	344	1
48958	Wallace	ground	177	266	215	0
8999	Wallace	ground	177	161	100	2
15389	Wallace	ground	176	203	307	0
72953	Wallace	ground	175	183	123	16
39448	Wallace	ground	174	139	117	1
5829	Wallace	ground	172	177	188	0
53073	Wallace	ground	168	194	118	2
13253	Wallace	ground	166	221	186	2
36369	Wallace	ground	165	164	125	0
24784	Wallace	ground	163	237	210	0
71799	Wallace	ground	162	144	240	15
23292	Wallace	ground	161	261	243	6
45144	Wallace	ground	160	212	207	0
11750	Wallace	ground	160	137	160	1
70275	Wallace	ground	159	143	125	14
26114	Wallace	ground	158	259	266	0
41703	Wallace	ground	156	228	233	0
52458	Wallace	ground	154	129	242	0
2326	Wallace	ground	154	215	190	2
45003	Wallace	ground	152	189	227	0
42152	Wallace	ground	151	140	120	0
29103	Wallace	ground	151	185	240	0
26072	Wallace	ground	149	146	121	5
19686	Wallace	ground	147	147	284	1
8699	Wallace	ground	147	134	122	1
22767	Wallace	ground	145	127	145	0
22611	Wallace	ground	145	286	246	0
21211	Wallace	ground	139	210	125	0
72364	Wallace	ground	139	132	126	16
38378	Wallace	ground	139	219	240	0
7267	Wallace	ground	139	171	225	0
30402	Wallace	ground	136	151	166	0
34265	Wallace	ground	135	171	175	0
22456	Wallace	ground	134	229	210	0
16741	Wallace	ground	132	237	240	0
45728	Wallace	ground	132	82	240	1
11561	Wallace	ground	131	91	160	1
27895	Wallace	ground	131	123	138	0
46320	Wallace	ground	131	166	125	1
5943	Wallace	ground	131	116	125	0
24628	Wallace	ground	128	139	156	0
49031	Wallace	ground	128	194	250	0
47515	Wallace	ground	126	192	123	0
12158	Wallace	ground	125	149	138	0
29635	Wallace	ground	125	182	225	0
49901	Wallace	ground	124	129	100	0
5156	Wallace	ground	123	136	498	3
42810	Wallace	ground	123	152	110	1
24252	Wallace	ground	123	156	162	1
20175	Wallace	ground	121	90	135	22
39530	Wallace	ground	121	114	125	1
70142	Wallace	ground	119	158	130	14
33211	Wallace	ground	118	116	80	23
16328	Wallace	ground	115	118	125	1
39699	Wallace	ground	113	94	58	0
17455	Wallace	ground	112	147	123	1
52353	Wallace	ground	112	106	125	22
18605	Wallace	ground	112	154	202	0
24323	Wallace	ground	111	116	100	0
6787	Wallace	ground	111	147	123	2
20832	Wallace	ground	109	159	128	0
42272	Wallace	ground	108	129	96	0
32582	Wallace	ground	107	118	141	1
6066	Wallace	ground	107	194	123	0
11574	Wallace	ground	107	108	122	1
8396	Wallace	ground	107	157	124	0
33813	Wallace	ground	106	104	140	0
30414	Wallace	ground	105	135	138	0

Counties with a comparable file

Hodgeman 700
Cloud 685
Cheyenne 676
Washington 663
Clay 654
Phillips 637
Pottawatomie 636
Morton 601
Shawnee 601
Kingman 599
Rush 558
Gove 554
Kiowa 554

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.