Water Use
The portion of the Neosho River basin and Spring River basin within the Ozark Plateau moratorium region has a total of 219 water rights with an authorized quantity of 257,614 acre-feet. These water right numbers are for the following counties: Neosho, Crawford, Labette, and Cherokee. The source of supply is groundwater for 95 water rights, or 43% of the total rights (see table below). This analysis includes vested rights and appropriated rights authorized for irrigation, municipal, recreation, industrial, domestic and stock water uses within the Ozark Plateau moratorium region.
|
Type |
Source |
Number of Rights |
Authorized Quantity |
|
Vested |
Surface Water |
12 |
156,960 AF |
|
Appropriated |
Surface Water |
112 |
88,341 AF |
|
Vested |
Groundwater |
14 |
2,111 AF |
|
Appropriated |
Groundwater |
81 |
10,202 AF |
|
Total |
|
219 |
257,614 AF |
Moratorium area water use tends to fluctuate per year largely due to the varying surface water diversions within the Spring River basin. These diversions are used mostly for flow-through cooling operations for the Empire District Electric Company, and most of the water is returned to the stream. Usage ranges from 113,601 acre-feet in 2003 to 130,149 acre-feet in 1996. The total average water use over the twenty-year span was 122,767 acre-feet. Groundwater usage averages 7,859 acre-feet per year from 1990-2007, which is 64% of authorized quantities. Average Spring River basin surface water use is 108,498 acre-feet, which is 48% of authorized quantities, whereas in the Neosho River basin surface water use is 6,393 acre-feet or 32% of authorized quantities.
In the Neosho River basin, some municipal and industrial users obtain some of their water supply from federal reservoirs through Water Marketing contracts. Since Marketing Program contracts do not require water appropriation permits, diversions under contract are not reflected in the above table. Additionally, all municipal and industrial users who divert surface water in the Neosho River basin are required to be members of the Cottonwood and Neosho River Basins Water Assurance District No. 3, which supports diversions of its members from a dedicated pool in Assurance reservoirs.
The Points of Diversion map includes some surface water rights that are used for watershed dams and account for evaporation.