Water use in Wyandotte County

212 points of diversion — 0.4% of the Kansas file — reporting 102,762 acre-feet in 2023.

212Points

102,7622023, acre-feet

1,217Acres irrigated

31Reporting use

What the series actually shows — Wyandotte County

Reported use here peaked in 2006 at 134,622 acre-feet and bottomed in 2015 at 71,757. 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 90,374 acre-feet a year against 100,521 in the first ten — lower. And the number of points reporting any use moved from 52 to 31: the count of straws in the ground barely changes, whatever the year does to the volume.

Reported use in Wyandotte 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	92,989	130	52
1991	97,785	340	57
1992	90,095	472	49
1993	85,814	160	50
1994	100,700	110	46
1995	102,722	70	43
1996	104,739	65	43
1997	107,279	65	51
1998	110,037	0	53
1999	113,047	110	47
2000	118,416	190	47
2001	120,557	284	49
2002	125,083	320	57
2003	131,670	320	50
2004	121,952	320	38
2005	125,680	598	54
2006	134,622	620	49
2007	125,277	620	51
2008	115,076	620	47
2009	106,789	620	45
2010	90,281	620	54
2011	83,181	432	57
2012	97,864	620	53
2013	85,152	592	50
2014	85,398	795	58
2015	71,757	910	55
2016	85,103	910	45
2017	87,476	910	39
2018	91,944	1,172	45
2019	90,193	238	40
2020	89,489	1,180	41
2021	95,969	1,067	35
2022	103,650	1,104	37
2023	102,762	1,217	31

Where the water comes from

Source	Points	Share
groundwater — a well	159	75.0%
surface water — a river, stream or reservoir	53	25.0%

Which management district

District	Points	Share
Outside any district	212	100.0%

⚠️ What a zero here does not mean

181 of the 212 points in Wyandotte County report 0 acre-feet for 2023, and 198 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 Wyandotte County?

212 points of diversion sit in Wyandotte County, reporting 102,762 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

Wyandotte 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
35282	Wyandotte	surface	57,335	25,819	0	0
3827	Wyandotte	ground	17,716	13,510	0	10
86555	Wyandotte	ground	16,954	10,771	0	28
53516	Wyandotte	surface	7,045	22,318	0	0
88231	Wyandotte	surface	1,583	374	0	31
23872	Wyandotte	surface	713	1,955	0	2
35843	Wyandotte	ground	356	294	0	0
18806	Wyandotte	ground	295	220	0	0
64210	Wyandotte	ground	150	173	0	13
9057	Wyandotte	surface	137	105	135	1
71711	Wyandotte	ground	86	67	188	15
64867	Wyandotte	ground	60	20	119	12
30824	Wyandotte	surface	50	56	70	2
82143	Wyandotte	ground	40	86	268	24
83475	Wyandotte	ground	40	35	115	25
86391	Wyandotte	ground	35	3	0	33
85168	Wyandotte	ground	34	20	70	26
64412	Wyandotte	ground	33	5	113	28
82152	Wyandotte	ground	32	51	139	24
4870	Wyandotte	ground	27	63	0	0
73022	Wyandotte	ground	15	15	0	17
83629	Wyandotte	ground	5	3	0	26
88617	Wyandotte	ground	5	2	0	31
77111	Wyandotte	ground	5	20	0	20
21837	Wyandotte	surface	4	9	0	0
78352	Wyandotte	ground	3	40	0	20
84185	Wyandotte	ground	2	1	0	29
77032	Wyandotte	ground	2	20	0	21
85699	Wyandotte	ground	0	1	0	27
82265	Wyandotte	ground	0	208	0	25
16710	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	3
314	Wyandotte	surface	0	221	0	4
1645	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	34
2023	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	34
2389	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	33
2832	Wyandotte	surface	0	0	0	17
2990	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	32
3181	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	32
3567	Wyandotte	ground	0	84	0	6
4265	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	33
6230	Wyandotte	surface	0	0	0	18
6419	Wyandotte	surface	0	0	0	26
6637	Wyandotte	ground	0	45	0	8
6708	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	34
6814	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	34
6908	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	24
7204	Wyandotte	ground	0	2	0	21
7561	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	34
7632	Wyandotte	surface	0	0	0	25
7665	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	28
8458	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	31
8712	Wyandotte	surface	0	0	0	25
8803	Wyandotte	surface	0	0	0	20
9248	Wyandotte	ground	0	1	0	7
9659	Wyandotte	ground	0	50	0	8
9845	Wyandotte	surface	0	0	0	34
9969	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	34
10305	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	24
11190	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	12
11257	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	34
11590	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	33
11824	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	34
12295	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	25
12809	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	34
14064	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	31
14480	Wyandotte	surface	0	5	0	5
14631	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	34
15241	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	34
16249	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	34
16419	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	34
16483	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	13
17133	Wyandotte	ground	0	50	0	8
17566	Wyandotte	ground	0	129	0	8
17804	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	34
18209	Wyandotte	ground	0	47	0	1
18621	Wyandotte	surface	0	1	0	28
20113	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	34
20219	Wyandotte	ground	0	25	0	8
20800	Wyandotte	ground	0	778	0	7
20854	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	29
21070	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	34
21158	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	11
21852	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	32
21896	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	11
21964	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	25
21975	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	34
22073	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	34
22161	Wyandotte	ground	0	282	0	7
22253	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	32
22305	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	34
22408	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	34
22430	Wyandotte	surface	0	0	0	34
22710	Wyandotte	ground	0	12	0	8
23080	Wyandotte	ground	0	162	0	6
23453	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	21
23780	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	25
24367	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	34
25368	Wyandotte	surface	0	8	0	2
25394	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	30
25929	Wyandotte	surface	0	0	0	34
26470	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	34
26805	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	32
27715	Wyandotte	surface	0	3,270	0	10
27868	Wyandotte	ground	0	56	0	6
28053	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	32
28542	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	15
29707	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	34
30762	Wyandotte	ground	0	6	0	9
31212	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	13
31306	Wyandotte	ground	0	31	0	8
32685	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	27
32948	Wyandotte	surface	0	0	0	32
33252	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	34
34488	Wyandotte	ground	0	72	0	2
34547	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	34
34745	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	34
35892	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	34
36266	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	34
36288	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	34
36331	Wyandotte	ground	0	0	0	23

Counties with a comparable file

Osborne 311
Douglas 310
Marion 298
Johnson 297
Smith 293
Jefferson 290
Barber 289
Rooks 284
Mitchell 274
Ness 274
Geary 261
Nemaha 247
Jewell 222

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.