What a zero does not mean
This is the page that stops the obvious conclusion. It is obvious, it is tempting, and on this file it is not supported.
The temptation
K.S.A. 82a-718 terminates a Kansas water right after five successive years without beneficial use. This file shows, for every point, exactly how many consecutive years read 0 — and 43,159 of the 59,615 points show five or more.
It looks like a list of rights at risk. It is not, for three reasons that stack.
One: there are no blanks 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.
We checked before building: not a single null in the usage columns. Every point carries a number for every year back to 1990, including points that did not exist in 1990. A 0 therefore carries no information about whether a report was filed.
Two: the law recognises reasons not to pump
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.
K.A.R. 5-7-1 sets out what counts as due and sufficient cause: enough rain to grow the crop without irrigating; a right established on a preferred source; water simply not available at the source when it was needed; use discontinued for soil and water conservation. K.A.R. 5-7-4 adds that a right enrolled and compliant in the water rights conservation programme is deemed to have due and sufficient cause.
A farmer who did not irrigate because it rained has not abandoned anything.
Three: it takes a hearing
Abandonment is not automatic. The chief engineer must hold a hearing, with at least 30 days’ notice served on the user, and the determination is subject to review. Nothing in a spreadsheet substitutes for that.
So what is the number good for?
It is good for knowing what to ask. If you are buying ground and the point attached to it has read 0 for fifteen years, that is a question for the seller and for the Division of Water Resources — not a conclusion you can draw from here. That is the whole use of this site: it tells you where to look, and it refuses to tell you what you would like to hear.
A right that has read zero for years?
Whether a particular right is at risk, and what due and sufficient cause would look like for it, is a question for someone who practises Kansas water law. Tell us where and we pass the request on.
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.
Not a consumer reporting agency. This site and the datasets sold from it are not consumer reports under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and must not be used to decide anyone's eligibility for employment, credit, insurance, housing, or any other purpose covered by the FCRA. If you need a background check, use a screening company that operates as a consumer reporting agency.