# ks-water-use — Kansas water use, point by point

> How much water each of 59,615 Kansas points of diversion reported using, every year from 1990 to 2023, with the irrigated area alongside.

## How much water does this Kansas right actually use?

Type a county — Finney, Gray, Sedgwick — or a point number. **59,615** points of diversion, each with **thirty-four years** of reported use.

Working through a lease block or a portfolio? [Pro access](/pro.md) resolves a list of points, and the [datasets](/data.md) are published with their prices — from USD 300 a month for the stream of changes.

### The number that does not move

Reported use across Kansas peaked in **2000** at
6,374,054 acre-feet and bottomed in **1993** at
3,525,238 — a swing of about 40%. That is rainfall, not policy,
and it means any two years picked from the table below can be made to tell
almost any story.

What barely moves is the count of points reporting any use at all:
**26,449** in 1990,
**26,192** in 2023, and never outside a narrow band
in between. The number of straws in the ground is steady; how hard they are
pulled depends on the year.

Averaged by decade rather than picked by year: the last ten
years run at 5,320,529 acre-feet against 4,984,804 for the first ten.

*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% |

### Why anyone looks this up

Two obligations sit behind this file, and both have money attached.

**The annual report.** Under K.S.A. 82a-732, the owner of a
water right — other than for domestic use — must file a water use
report by **1 March** each year. Miss it and the penalty is
USD 250 per file number; miss 1 June and it becomes USD 1,000
*and suspension of all water use* until the report is in.

**And non-use ends a right.** K.S.A. 82a-718 terminates a
water right after five successive years without beneficial use. Which is why
somebody buying irrigated ground wants to see the series before they buy the
land, not after. [But a run of zeros here proves nothing
— and that matters more than it sounds](/zero.md).

### Where the water goes

| County | Acre-feet 2023 | Share |
|---|---|---|
| [Douglas](/county/douglas.md) | 900,517 | 20.1% |
| [Finney](/county/finney.md) | 219,288 | 4.9% |
| [Stevens](/county/stevens.md) | 207,511 | 4.6% |
| [Seward](/county/seward.md) | 159,496 | 3.6% |
| [Meade](/county/meade.md) | 154,452 | 3.4% |
| [Gray](/county/gray.md) | 151,760 | 3.4% |
| [Haskell](/county/haskell.md) | 145,196 | 3.2% |
| [Kearny](/county/kearny.md) | 143,771 | 3.2% |
| [Edwards](/county/edwards.md) | 113,474 | 2.5% |
| [Sedgwick](/county/sedgwick.md) | 108,891 | 2.4% |
| [Grant](/county/grant.md) | 104,222 | 2.3% |
| [Wyandotte](/county/wyandotte.md) | 102,762 | 2.3% |
| [Pratt](/county/pratt.md) | 99,716 | 2.2% |
| [Ford](/county/ford.md) | 96,916 | 2.2% |
| [Stafford](/county/stafford.md) | 92,560 | 2.1% |

### Groundwater, and the districts that manage it

**51,474** of the 59,615 points draw groundwater
— 86.3%. In western Kansas that means the High Plains
aquifer, the formation people call the Ogallala, and five groundwater
management districts exist to govern it.

| 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% |

### ⚠️ What this file cannot tell you

These are **reported** figures, not meter readings, and a
median point reported 97 acre-feet in 2023. There are no blanks in the
usage columns: a nil return, a point that did not yet exist, and a report
never filed all read as 0 — and 33,423 points read 0 for 2023.
[What that does and does not mean](/zero.md).

[All 73 counties](/county.md) · [What the series shows](/decline.md) · [What a zero means](/zero.md) · [Districts](/district.md) · [Year by year](/year.md) · [How this site is built](/about.md)

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