Water Use

The Upper Arkansas River subbasin has a total of 4,487 water rights with an authorized quantity of 1,599,893 acre-feet.  There are more appropriation rights than vested rights.  The average water use was 890,253 acre-feet from 1987 to 2009.  This analysis used all irrigation, industrial, recreation, municipal, domestic and stock water rights.

Source Type Number of Rights   Authorized Quantity 
Surface Vested 21 150,249
Ground Vested 345 105,171
Surface Appropriated  39 8,729
Ground     Appropriated   4,082 1,335,744

 Upper Arkansas Water Use 1992-2009

The Points of Diversion Map includes some surface water rights that are used for watershed dams and account for evaporation.

Kansas Department of Agriculture