# Is Kansas water use falling? What thirty-four years actually show

> Reported use swings about 40% with rainfall — 6,374,054 acre-feet in 2000, 3,525,238 in 1993. The count of points reporting use barely moves.

## What thirty-four years actually show

Everyone wants a single arrow. The file does not give one — and the honest reading is more interesting than the arrow would have been.

### ⚠️ Why any two years lie

Kansas reported 5,352,005 acre-feet in 1990 and
4,482,689 in 2023. Put like that it looks like a decline of about
16%. But the same file reports **6,374,054** in 2000 and
**6,187,504** in 2020 — both *above* 1990.
Pick a wet year against a dry one and you can manufacture any trend you
like.

This site made that mistake before it was built. The first
draft of this page said « a measured decline of 16.2% »
because it compared the two ends of the series. Reading the whole series
killed the claim. We keep the correction visible rather than quietly fixing
it, because the same trap is waiting for anyone who downloads this
file.

### What is stable, and it is the interesting part

The volume swings. The **number of points reporting any use**
does not: 26,449 in 1990, 26,745 in 2000,
26,281 in 2010, 26,192 in 2023.

Whatever the weather does to the volume, roughly the same number of
diversions is drawing on the aquifer every year. The infrastructure of
irrigation does not contract with a wet season — it simply pumps
less.

### By decade, which is the only comparison that survives

First ten years on file: **4,984,804** acre-feet a year on
average. Last ten years: **5,320,529**. That is a comparison of
twenty data points against twenty, not one against one.

*Reported use across Kansas, year by year. The last column is the gap to the thirty-four year average — the swing is rainfall.*

| Year | Acre-feet | Acres irrigated | Points reporting | vs average |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [1990](/year/1990.md) | 5,352,005 | 3,072,845 | 26,449 | +3% |
| [1991](/year/1991.md) | 5,433,882 | 3,113,924 | 26,889 | +4% |
| [1992](/year/1992.md) | 3,989,212 | 2,958,889 | 24,921 | -23% |
| [1993](/year/1993.md) | 3,525,238 | 2,852,221 | 23,540 | -32% |
| [1994](/year/1994.md) | 4,696,430 | 3,049,779 | 26,128 | -10% |
| [1995](/year/1995.md) | 4,418,233 | 3,034,234 | 25,755 | -15% |
| [1996](/year/1996.md) | 5,605,153 | 3,091,384 | 26,073 | +7% |
| [1997](/year/1997.md) | 5,493,787 | 3,160,348 | 26,354 | +5% |
| [1998](/year/1998.md) | 5,755,680 | 3,196,549 | 26,388 | +10% |
| [1999](/year/1999.md) | 5,578,425 | 3,219,416 | 26,510 | +7% |
| [2000](/year/2000.md) | 6,374,054 | 3,210,255 | 26,745 | +22% |
| [2001](/year/2001.md) | 5,617,732 | 3,171,589 | 26,776 | +8% |
| [2002](/year/2002.md) | 5,985,182 | 3,268,093 | 27,220 | +15% |
| [2003](/year/2003.md) | 5,319,435 | 3,151,822 | 27,151 | +2% |
| [2004](/year/2004.md) | 4,811,662 | 3,139,313 | 26,634 | -8% |
| [2005](/year/2005.md) | 4,580,074 | 3,126,779 | 26,654 | -12% |
| [2006](/year/2006.md) | 4,985,462 | 3,112,716 | 26,619 | -4% |
| [2007](/year/2007.md) | 4,703,046 | 3,080,449 | 26,235 | -10% |
| [2008](/year/2008.md) | 4,877,746 | 3,096,335 | 26,215 | -6% |
| [2009](/year/2009.md) | 4,772,103 | 3,075,959 | 26,135 | -8% |
| [2010](/year/2010.md) | 5,225,571 | 3,092,168 | 26,281 | +0% |
| [2011](/year/2011.md) | 6,168,180 | 3,127,563 | 26,680 | +18% |
| [2012](/year/2012.md) | 5,736,318 | 3,069,607 | 26,674 | +10% |
| [2013](/year/2013.md) | 5,083,268 | 3,171,419 | 26,518 | -3% |
| [2014](/year/2014.md) | 4,979,459 | 3,131,364 | 26,647 | -5% |
| [2015](/year/2015.md) | 4,768,277 | 3,125,738 | 26,394 | -9% |
| [2016](/year/2016.md) | 5,539,658 | 3,111,109 | 26,389 | +6% |
| [2017](/year/2017.md) | 5,468,202 | 3,155,015 | 26,500 | +5% |
| [2018](/year/2018.md) | 5,183,645 | 3,061,194 | 26,497 | -1% |
| [2019](/year/2019.md) | 4,714,914 | 3,082,211 | 25,631 | -10% |
| [2020](/year/2020.md) | 6,187,504 | 3,091,762 | 26,155 | +19% |
| [2021](/year/2021.md) | 5,793,607 | 3,144,084 | 26,343 | +11% |
| [2022](/year/2022.md) | 6,087,338 | 3,093,472 | 26,487 | +17% |
| [2023](/year/2023.md) | 4,482,689 | 3,308,579 | 26,192 | -14% |

### Where the pumping is

The five groundwater management districts exist because the aquifer is
finite and the pumping is concentrated. Southwest Kansas GMD 3 alone holds
15,740 of the
59,615 points on file.

| District | Points | Share |
|---|---|---|
| [Outside any district](/district/outside-any-district.md) | 25,058 | 42.0% |
| [Southwest Kansas GMD 3](/district/southwest-kansas-gmd-3.md) | 15,740 | 26.4% |
| [Big Bend GMD 5](/district/big-bend-gmd-5.md) | 6,850 | 11.5% |
| [Northwest Kansas GMD 4](/district/northwest-kansas-gmd-4.md) | 4,377 | 7.3% |
| [Equus Beds GMD 2](/district/equus-beds-gmd-2.md) | 4,186 | 7.0% |
| [Western Kansas GMD 1](/district/western-kansas-gmd-1.md) | 3,404 | 5.7% |

These are the figures water-right holders reported. They describe declared use, not what a meter would have read, and they say nothing about the condition of a well or the state of the aquifer beneath it.

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Página: https://ks-water-use.pages.dev/decline/
Fonte: Kansas water use — Kansas Geological Survey, from the annual reports collected by the Division of Water Resources
Recolha: 2026-08-22