Seniority, absolute versus conditional water, and decreed uses for all 329 water rights on record in Sedgwick County, taken from the state's own records. Priority dates run from 1890-10-22 to 2017-11-14.
CFS on record: 1,355.5 absolute · 640.1 conditional. Flow (CFS) and volume (AF) are never added together.
Worth knowing: Sedgwick County has about 1.6x more acre-feet decreed as conditional than as absolute. Conditional water is decreed on paper but not yet put to beneficial use. A buyer or lender who does not separate the two is valuing a different asset than the one on the ground.
In a dry year the oldest rights are served first. This is how Sedgwick County's rights are distributed.
| Era | Rights | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| pre-1900 | 17 | 5.2% | |
| 1900-1949 | 58 | 17.6% | |
| 1950-1969 | 170 | 51.7% | |
| 1970-1999 | 27 | 8.2% | |
| 2000+ | 57 | 17.3% |
| Decreed use | Rights |
|---|---|
| Irrigation | 237 |
| Augmentation | 50 |
| Recharge | 33 |
| Stock | 30 |
| Domestic | 21 |
| Municipal | 16 |
Ranked by the state's own priority administration number, the figure DWR uses to order rights by seniority.
| Priority | Structure | Source | Amount | Uses | Verify |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1892-09-14 | SOUTH RESERVATION DITCH | SOUTH PLATTE RIVER | 25.0 CFS | Irrigation | state record |
| 1894-11-11 | PARKER WELL 2 | GROUNDWATER: SOUTH PLATTE RIVER | 0.1111 CFS | Irrigation, Domestic, Stock | state record |
| 1897-02-02 | STOCKHAM WELL 1 | GROUNDWATER: SOUTH PLATTE RIVER | 0.078 CFS | Domestic, Stock | state record |
| 1897-06-14 | SOUTH PLATTE RIVER COMPACT | SOUTH PLATTE RIVER | 120.0 CFS | Other | state record |
| 1890-10-22 | RUSSELL SIDEBOTHAM DITCH | SOUTH PLATTE RIVER | 12.0 CFS | Irrigation | state record |
| 1891-10-21 | LIDDLE DITCH | SOUTH PLATTE RIVER | 10.0 CFS | Irrigation | state record |
| 1894-06-19 | MCWILLIAMS CANAL | COTTONWOOD CREEK | 8.0 CFS | Irrigation | state record |
| 1894-12-01 | CARLSON DITCH | SOUTH PLATTE RIVER | 16.0 CFS | Irrigation | state record |
| 1895-03-01 | PETERSEN DITCH | SOUTH PLATTE RIVER | 164.0 CFS | Irrigation | state record |
| 1897-12-13 | SETTLERS DITCH | SOUTH PLATTE RIVER | 51.87 CFS | Irrigation | state record |
This page is the summary. The full file for Sedgwick County covers every one of the 329 rights, with its priority date, seniority number, absolute and conditional amounts, decreed uses and a link to each official record, as a spreadsheet.
Buying, lending on, or listing irrigated ground here? Ask for the county file, or for a single property's water summary. The first one is on me.
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Records last updated 10 September 2026.