Salina ? Despite plentiful rains in much of Kansas this year, reservoirs in the western part of the state that are used for irrigation are still short on water.

In Smith County, irrigators who use the Kirwin Reservoir won’t be getting anything from the lake this year. It’s at just 17.9 percent of capacity – or 25 feet below capacity.

Dennis Lehmann, a Smith County farmer and president of the Kirwin Irrigation District in Gaylord, said irrigators last year received just 4 inches of water for each irrigated crop. The goal is a foot a year for irrigation, but that hasn’t been delivered since 2002.

Regardless, farmers in irrigation districts have to pay an annual fee – for Kirwin it’s $26.10 per acre per year – for the right to use the water. The money helps keep the districts running, maintain the lakes and repay the federal government for part of the cost of building the reservoirs.

While much of Kansas has received adequate rain this year, the state’s river systems are still suffering from the droughts of previous years, according to Steve Spaulding, a hydraulic engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Kansas City district. More rain is needed to replenish shallow aquifers below river channels and to saturate the banks.

“We need a couple more years of decent rainfall before we’re back to normal,” Spaulding said.

In northwest Kansas, the irrigation district for the Cedar Bluff Reservoir disbanded because the lake had been so dry in recent years, although it’s now 60 percent full.

But Webster and Keith Sebelius reservoirs, also in northwest Kansas, are still less than one-fourth full.

And in the Kansas Bostwick Irrigation District in the north-central part of the state, irrigators north of Lovewell Reservoir in Jewell County haven’t received water since 2003.

“Our only irrigation is out of that ditch,” said Courtland farmer Calvin Hobson, 81. “There is none.”

For the first time, the Bostwick system isn’t getting any water from Harlan County Lake in Nebraska, said district manager Kenny Nelson, of Courtland. The district manages Lovewell Reservoir and Harlan County Lake.

Nelson said the situation was a little better south of Lovewell, which is at 58 percent capacity.

This year, those farmers will receive 6 inches of irrigation water for each irrigated acre, while a normal year would bring about 15 inches of water.

Lehmann, of the Kirwin Irrigation District, said farmers have been understanding and remain optimistic that they’ll get water in the future.

Kirwin and Webster irrigators have never been without water more than two years in a row, said Andy Wilson, manager of both those districts.