Water use in Wichita County

1,194 points of diversion — 2.0% of the Kansas file — reporting 27,520 acre-feet in 2023.

1,194Points

27,5202023, acre-feet

50,532Acres irrigated

498Reporting use

What the series actually shows — Wichita County

Reported use here peaked in 1990 at 131,380 acre-feet and bottomed in 2019 at 26,762. 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 38,090 acre-feet a year against 88,081 in the first ten — lower. And the number of points reporting any use moved from 756 to 498: the count of straws in the ground barely changes, whatever the year does to the volume.

Reported use in Wichita 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	131,380	93,185	756
1991	121,210	90,211	756
1992	91,340	84,679	736
1993	63,924	74,155	686
1994	92,247	80,031	724
1995	83,535	81,079	713
1996	80,050	79,903	726
1997	73,327	82,368	713
1998	70,406	77,646	694
1999	73,388	82,472	692
2000	88,544	83,904	693
2001	69,149	76,953	667
2002	88,534	82,147	667
2003	67,373	75,707	643
2004	65,163	72,822	635
2005	55,144	69,843	622
2006	65,847	67,967	597
2007	56,469	66,799	603
2008	68,593	69,259	625
2009	56,736	66,526	615
2010	59,522	66,154	589
2011	64,031	67,076	596
2012	68,131	66,075	596
2013	60,526	66,968	591
2014	57,109	66,786	578
2015	43,520	60,931	560
2016	40,722	58,443	550
2017	35,334	55,904	539
2018	37,336	53,391	526
2019	26,762	52,002	507
2020	38,996	52,749	522
2021	33,807	52,090	522
2022	39,794	50,905	514
2023	27,520	50,532	498

Where the water comes from

Source	Points	Share
groundwater — a well	1,188	99.5%
surface water — a river, stream or reservoir	6	0.5%

Which management district

District	Points	Share
Western Kansas GMD 1	1,148	96.1%
Outside any district	46	3.9%

⚠️ What a zero here does not mean

696 of the 1,194 points in Wichita County report 0 acre-feet for 2023, and 814 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 Wichita County?

1,194 points of diversion sit in Wichita County, reporting 27,520 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

Wichita 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
69793	Wichita	ground	318	43	0	14
22737	Wichita	ground	255	127	375	1
67505	Wichita	ground	226	186	0	12
81555	Wichita	ground	209	241	0	23
68771	Wichita	ground	191	222	389	13
22935	Wichita	ground	185	219	242	0
2606	Wichita	ground	185	216	229	0
27210	Wichita	ground	180	180	126	0
12594	Wichita	ground	172	112	0	13
47063	Wichita	ground	155	190	297	1
71623	Wichita	ground	154	196	243	15
7528	Wichita	ground	147	129	178	0
78588	Wichita	ground	142	132	159	21
63282	Wichita	ground	140	111	240	9
47220	Wichita	ground	140	240	291	0
87539	Wichita	ground	139	78	279	29
42413	Wichita	ground	138	138	118	0
6983	Wichita	ground	136	243	201	1
37787	Wichita	ground	136	174	333	0
3024	Wichita	ground	133	165	165	1
2153	Wichita	ground	131	139	210	0
62033	Wichita	ground	130	133	270	8
46460	Wichita	ground	130	197	324	0
54113	Wichita	ground	128	160	139	0
844	Wichita	ground	128	130	0	6
7396	Wichita	ground	127	133	125	0
47635	Wichita	ground	127	117	160	1
35086	Wichita	ground	125	130	240	0
37548	Wichita	ground	124	160	0	1
44529	Wichita	ground	123	91	123	1
8570	Wichita	ground	122	151	244	1
27745	Wichita	ground	121	92	94	0
64451	Wichita	ground	119	146	0	10
68176	Wichita	ground	119	144	237	13
36212	Wichita	ground	119	92	157	6
52152	Wichita	ground	119	110	151	2
64582	Wichita	ground	119	132	123	10
26524	Wichita	ground	117	177	250	0
43157	Wichita	ground	117	170	286	0
24705	Wichita	ground	113	118	240	0
52456	Wichita	ground	112	75	0	1
63015	Wichita	ground	110	149	313	8
88214	Wichita	ground	108	38	121	30
28305	Wichita	ground	107	102	124	1
50528	Wichita	ground	106	111	244	1
23807	Wichita	ground	105	122	124	0
2075	Wichita	ground	105	87	120	2
31616	Wichita	ground	104	68	124	1
41753	Wichita	ground	104	118	138	0
46735	Wichita	ground	103	68	100	3
71738	Wichita	ground	102	131	183	15
38912	Wichita	ground	101	89	133	0
90314	Wichita	ground	101	10	113	33
47123	Wichita	ground	101	86	254	0
50558	Wichita	ground	101	121	247	0
70018	Wichita	ground	100	105	170	14
9174	Wichita	ground	99	126	180	0
41812	Wichita	ground	99	97	121	0
53816	Wichita	ground	98	118	120	0
35564	Wichita	ground	98	97	123	1
1554	Wichita	ground	98	108	114	0
12778	Wichita	ground	97	93	112	0
10575	Wichita	ground	95	128	250	0
29691	Wichita	ground	95	156	125	0
69567	Wichita	ground	94	94	145	13
49516	Wichita	ground	94	126	240	1
43678	Wichita	ground	93	114	155	0
6906	Wichita	ground	93	88	122	2
20928	Wichita	ground	93	88	120	1
67136	Wichita	ground	93	137	185	12
18066	Wichita	ground	92	129	120	0
74783	Wichita	ground	91	115	160	17
68896	Wichita	ground	91	133	132	13
16066	Wichita	ground	90	123	275	1
51056	Wichita	ground	90	178	142	0
77652	Wichita	ground	90	124	123	20
16985	Wichita	ground	90	80	124	0
46859	Wichita	ground	90	151	123	0
47361	Wichita	ground	90	94	129	0
11022	Wichita	ground	89	84	120	0
64714	Wichita	ground	89	150	147	10
1335	Wichita	ground	88	162	118	0
66366	Wichita	ground	88	151	215	11
8420	Wichita	ground	85	101	125	0
82133	Wichita	ground	85	102	245	23
26571	Wichita	ground	84	185	251	0
40334	Wichita	ground	84	93	121	0
25826	Wichita	ground	83	96	125	0
44919	Wichita	ground	83	78	123	0
17446	Wichita	ground	82	77	74	0
51861	Wichita	ground	82	84	120	0
22484	Wichita	ground	82	103	140	0
1461	Wichita	ground	82	119	124	0
10504	Wichita	ground	82	128	162	6
40724	Wichita	ground	82	109	235	1
33474	Wichita	ground	82	94	120	5
38280	Wichita	ground	81	75	118	0
15622	Wichita	ground	81	98	116	0
3535	Wichita	ground	80	89	132	2
44377	Wichita	ground	80	60	124	1
19336	Wichita	ground	79	99	120	0
14944	Wichita	ground	79	109	325	0
4742	Wichita	ground	79	112	170	1
33903	Wichita	ground	79	68	104	1
17877	Wichita	ground	79	97	225	1
5872	Wichita	ground	78	72	120	0
8407	Wichita	ground	78	68	120	3
3804	Wichita	ground	78	89	184	2
20511	Wichita	ground	78	89	120	0
62899	Wichita	ground	78	109	184	8
42900	Wichita	ground	78	81	130	0
49191	Wichita	ground	78	77	99	0
53570	Wichita	ground	78	99	120	0
68062	Wichita	ground	77	106	90	12
5425	Wichita	ground	77	131	125	0
31325	Wichita	ground	77	49	200	4
19785	Wichita	ground	76	75	100	0
47718	Wichita	ground	76	91	120	1
34307	Wichita	ground	76	58	135	1
34289	Wichita	ground	75	116	84	0

Counties with a comparable file

Reno 1,990
Haskell 1,667
Ford 1,506
Pawnee 1,365
Kearny 1,364
Edwards 1,258
Stevens 1,256
Scott 1,178
Stafford 1,121
Mcpherson 1,113
Grant 1,103
Stanton 1,064
Sherman 1,019

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.