Our Mission

Across five counties and 1,118,200 acres, there are 2,805 permitted groundwater wells within the district pumping Ogallala aquifer water. The average annual usage has been approximately 300,000 acre-feet per year. Based on the amount of water in storage as well as the annual recharge, without any intervention, there is approximately 20 years of pumping left. 

Why We Exist

Groundwater Management Districts were created to help local water users manage and conserve groundwater resources in a way that supports agriculture, protects the economy, and ensures sustainability for future generations.

As stated in Kansas Statue 82a-1020:

"It is hereby recognized that a need exists for the creation of special districts for the proper management of the groundwater resources of the state; for the conservation of groundwater resources; for the prevention of economic deterioration; for associated endeavors within the state of Kansas through the stabilization of agriculture; and to secure for Kansas the benefit of its fertile soils and favorable location with respect to national and world markets.

It is the policy of this act to preserve basic water use doctrine and to establish the right of local water users to determine their destiny with respect to the use of the groundwater insofar as it does not conflict with the basic laws and policies of the state of Kansas.

It is, therefore, declared that in the public interest it is necessary and advisable to permit the establishment of groundwater management districts." - Kansas Statutes Annotated (K.S.A.) 82a-1020