2026-09-10 · Kansas · Regulation

Every county in Kansas is under some level of drought declaration, and the covenant telling an owner to keep a green lawn does not have an exception for it. Governor Laura Kelly signed the updated proclamation on April 30, 2026, on the recommendation of Connie Owen, Director of the Kansas Water Office and chair of the Governor's Drought Response Team.¹

The declaration

The proclamation placed 51 counties into watch status, 47 into warning and 7 into emergency — 105 counties in total. The emergency counties are Cheyenne, Decatur, Morton, Norton, Phillips, Rawlins and Stevens, all in the west and southwest.

It authorises state agencies to “implement the appropriate watch, warning, or emergency-level drought response actions assigned in the Operations Plan of the Governor's Drought Response Team.”

Owen's assessment was direct: “Recent rainfall has helped in some areas, but drought is far from over in Kansas. Conditions range from crop stress and elevated fire danger to growing water supply concerns.” The Governor noted that “while parts of eastern Kansas have seen significant rainfall, much of the state — especially western Kansas — continues to experience persistent precipitation deficits,” and encouraged “all Kansans to take proactive steps to conserve water.”

Where the friction starts

A state drought declaration does not itself restrict anyone's sprinkler. What it does is trigger the response framework that municipal water suppliers act within, and it is the city-level restriction that reaches a homeowner — a watering-day schedule, an hours restriction, or a stage-based ban.

Goodland, in Sherman County, adopted Resolution 2026-15 declaring a water watch in August 2026. Wichita has operated a permanent two-day-per-week sprinkler schedule since 2013. The pattern across the state is that restrictions arrive locally, at different stages, on different calendars.

Meanwhile the covenant in a Kansas subdivision typically says the owner shall maintain the lawn in a neat and attractive condition, and says nothing about drought.

1. Kansas updates drought declarations as conditions worsen statewide — High Plains Journal, May 1, 2026 ↩
2. K.S.A. 58-4608, Association powers and duties — Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes ↩
3. Resolution 2026-15, Water Watch — City of Goodland, Kansas, August 2026 ↩