Outside any district

25,058 points — 42.0% of the file — reporting 1,801,644 acre-feet in 2023.

What this district is

no groundwater management district covers this point.

What the series actually shows — Outside any district

Reported use here peaked in 2020 at 3,193,427 acre-feet and bottomed in 1993 at 580,448. 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 2,448,769 acre-feet a year against 1,420,468 in the first ten — higher. And the number of points reporting any use moved from 6,862 to 7,563: the count of straws in the ground barely changes, whatever the year does to the volume.

Reported use in Outside any district, 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	968,755	342,185	6,862
1991	992,314	363,256	7,099
1992	654,103	279,956	5,762
1993	580,448	219,211	4,720
1994	846,118	344,683	6,605
1995	865,029	346,745	6,564
1996	2,273,099	371,504	6,655
1997	2,296,555	380,561	6,666
1998	2,300,188	380,122	6,651
1999	2,428,069	389,749	6,647
2000	2,510,652	394,375	6,865
2001	2,082,548	401,927	6,848
2002	1,886,871	431,188	7,132
2003	1,742,735	417,720	7,105
2004	1,702,662	393,334	6,724
2005	1,653,029	436,427	6,963
2006	1,585,227	435,829	6,974
2007	1,653,501	426,643	6,809
2008	1,590,350	425,223	6,610
2009	1,779,915	423,864	6,565
2010	1,934,618	453,677	6,811
2011	2,137,682	477,312	7,104
2012	1,942,684	453,413	7,211
2013	1,801,969	514,698	7,113
2014	1,798,054	504,382	7,298
2015	1,914,493	503,432	7,140
2016	2,792,136	508,892	7,295
2017	2,795,501	551,074	7,495
2018	2,548,049	540,260	7,498
2019	2,264,314	502,433	6,925
2020	3,193,427	550,492	7,303
2021	2,849,403	537,099	7,533
2022	2,530,666	573,182	7,607
2023	1,801,644	612,995	7,563

Which counties

County	Points	Share
Sedgwick	1,361	5.4%
Norton	812	3.2%
Sumner	785	3.1%
Republic	721	2.9%
Hodgeman	700	2.8%
Cloud	685	2.7%
Washington	663	2.6%
Clay	654	2.6%
Phillips	637	2.5%
Pottawatomie	636	2.5%
Shawnee	601	2.4%
Kingman	599	2.4%
Rush	558	2.2%
Saline	543	2.2%
Ellis	500	2.0%
Butler	472	1.9%
Dickinson	468	1.9%
Ottawa	467	1.9%
Mcpherson	414	1.7%
Brown	404	1.6%
Cowley	394	1.6%
Decatur	378	1.5%
Marshall	359	1.4%
Trego	352	1.4%
Riley	347	1.4%
Hamilton	337	1.3%

⚠️ What a zero here does not mean

17,495 of the 25,058 points in Outside any district report 0 acre-feet for 2023, and 21,416 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 Outside any district?

25,058 points of diversion sit in Outside any district, reporting 1,801,644 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 largest points

Outside any district, 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
76439	Douglas	surface	805,446	1,158,655	0	21
30488	Douglas	surface	80,589	483,905	0	6
35282	Wyandotte	surface	57,335	25,819	0	0
52064	Jewell	surface	45,396	15,970	27,000	4
50926	Sedgwick	surface	31,384	34,689	0	0
17392	Jewell	surface	18,135	15,715	32,000	1
3827	Wyandotte	ground	17,716	13,510	0	10
73509	Leavenworth	ground	17,379	20,460	0	20
86555	Wyandotte	ground	16,954	10,771	0	28
51329	Pottawatomie	surface	16,317	21,009	0	7
48842	Phillips	surface	16,280	17,174	9,273	2
5781	Shawnee	surface	14,842	11,871	0	0
41143	Shawnee	surface	11,966	11,190	0	1
5941	Coffey	surface	11,520	8,752	0	12
3533	Rooks	surface	10,818	7,816	5,710	4
32746	Butler	surface	10,604	10,599	0	0
6710	Linn	surface	9,321	8,286	0	0
18136	Lyon	surface	9,248	6,161	0	1
53516	Wyandotte	surface	7,045	22,318	0	0
47040	Mitchell	surface	6,053	6,305	6,592	3
50536	Montgomery	surface	5,789	5,718	0	0
24549	Johnson	surface	5,583	2,051	0	0
26957	Douglas	ground	4,981	5,141	0	0
60024	Johnson	ground	4,524	4,308	0	9
35158	Atchison	surface	4,222	4,261	0	0
43476	Montgomery	surface	4,195	3,968	0	0
38313	Douglas	surface	4,005	4,690	0	0
69418	Johnson	ground	3,643	3,261	0	14
3177	Hamilton	surface	3,568	3,417	2,544	1
85919	Johnson	surface	3,177	1,119	0	27
65938	Johnson	ground	2,892	2,126	0	12
15569	Cowley	surface	2,789	2,492	0	0
65194	Bourbon	surface	2,660	495	0	13
70633	Johnson	ground	2,607	2,830	0	15
25772	Saline	surface	2,484	2,543	0	1
24209	Leavenworth	surface	2,364	2,711	0	0
53822	Linn	surface	2,360	956	0	14
68914	Neosho	surface	2,342	914	0	21
32079	Neosho	surface	2,186	1,172	0	25
72742	Shawnee	ground	2,171	622	0	27
10482	Franklin	surface	2,013	1,784	0	0
17511	Montgomery	surface	2,006	2,066	0	0
37960	Hamilton	surface	1,946	1,919	2,544	0
18576	Coffey	surface	1,720	5,203	0	2
86355	Leavenworth	ground	1,717	597	0	31
36049	Linn	surface	1,621	790	0	28
48592	Wilson	surface	1,611	1,321	0	0
88231	Wyandotte	surface	1,583	374	0	31
65015	Cowley	ground	1,559	1,857	0	10
86529	Pottawatomie	surface	1,490	596	0	29
16340	Geary	surface	1,476	1,976	0	1
48083	Pottawatomie	surface	1,337	668	0	11
72167	Miami	surface	1,261	1,190	0	19
5151	Butler	surface	1,225	292	0	0
11621	Crawford	ground	1,082	652	0	0
22487	Bourbon	surface	1,059	2,011	0	0
1749	Pottawatomie	ground	1,034	831	0	0
54285	Geary	ground	1,027	698	0	0
53504	Neosho	surface	1,013	962	0	0
65488	Sedgwick	ground	1,003	889	0	12
1097	Sumner	surface	997	1,064	0	2
78161	Clay	surface	971	324	0	23
6781	Cherokee	surface	939	343	0	31
47048	Crawford	surface	909	885	0	7
68934	Sedgwick	ground	896	537	0	13
43380	Linn	surface	883	884	0	17
77049	Allen	surface	878	940	0	19
40480	Jackson	surface	871	861	0	11
76795	Riley	ground	871	843	0	22
76793	Riley	ground	869	854	0	22
16275	Riley	ground	855	733	0	0
76794	Riley	ground	842	902	0	22
49483	Crawford	ground	822	654	0	0
31305	Miami	surface	809	801	0	0
48225	Riley	ground	796	627	0	0
30934	Pottawatomie	ground	786	610	0	0
39746	Shawnee	ground	777	669	0	1
53423	Anderson	surface	754	421	0	14
51726	Geary	ground	735	701	0	0
86435	Saline	ground	730	331	0	27
23872	Wyandotte	surface	713	1,955	0	2
37962	Bourbon	surface	712	71	0	16
15601	Hamilton	ground	678	292	211	10
24693	Sedgwick	ground	678	146	0	3
15976	Lyon	surface	677	555	0	7
41644	Crawford	ground	676	900	0	0
84951	Leavenworth	ground	672	190	0	30
40476	Crawford	surface	648	601	0	2
29885	Saline	ground	633	428	0	0
80244	Sedgwick	ground	615	568	0	23
36809	Shawnee	ground	586	254	0	0
32252	Coffey	surface	580	557	0	0
88335	Pottawatomie	ground	571	88	0	32
68264	Geary	ground	567	369	0	16
79920	Saline	ground	558	339	0	22
2908	Geary	ground	555	469	0	0
1918	Osage	surface	555	507	0	0
25821	Johnson	ground	538	257	0	4
10041	Mitchell	surface	536	483	0	0
22331	Cherokee	ground	534	519	0	2
18499	Sedgwick	ground	530	125	0	1
68575	Greenwood	surface	529	543	0	19
22132	Pottawatomie	ground	527	488	0	0
34927	Dickinson	ground	523	151	0	5
74345	Geary	ground	519	391	0	21
79921	Saline	ground	518	338	0	26
72173	Linn	surface	517	248	0	28
30485	Clark	ground	510	289	226	1
37342	Linn	surface	510	128	0	25
28824	Douglas	surface	493	66	0	15
71416	Franklin	ground	490	451	235	15
33675	Bourbon	surface	482	48	0	16
16721	Chautauqua	surface	476	488	0	10
76904	Hodgeman	ground	473	242	233	19
36099	Cherokee	surface	468	342	0	0
66552	Clay	surface	465	283	0	12
90563	Pottawatomie	ground	462	46	0	33
82000	Brown	surface	457	114	318	26
3160	Clay	ground	457	267	0	1
41669	Morris	surface	451	467	0	0