Water Use
The portion of the Neosho River basin within the Ozark Plateau region and the Spring River basin has a total of 328 water rights with an authorized quantity of 81,219 acre-feet. These water right numbers are for the following counties: Allen, Bourbon, Neosho, Crawford, Labette and Cherokee. This analysis includes all water rights authorized for irrigation, municipal, recreation, industrial, domestic and stock water uses within the Ozark Plateau region.
Type | Source | Number of Rights | Authorized Quantity |
Vested | Surface Water | 21 | 20,971 AF |
Appropriated | Surface Water | 206 | 47,404 AF |
Vested | Groundwater | 14 | 2,111 AF |
Appropriated | Groundwater | 87 | 10,733 AF |
Total |
| 328 | 81,219 AF |
The average water use over the twenty-year span was 27,730 acre-feet. 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 chart. 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.