Hutchinson ? State records show that fewer irrigators are pumping more than they are allowed but that the issue remains a problem as the Ogallala Aquifer shrinks.

Last year, state officials hardened the fines, hoping to curb overpumping, The Hutchinson News reported. Lane Letourneau, water appropriations program manager for the Kansas Department of Agriculture’s Division of Water Resources, said that while the number of irrigators misusing a water right is down from the past few years, it all adds up.

Gov. Sam Brownback has said that Ogallala’s storage could be nearly 70 percent spent in 50 years if nothing changes.

Records that The Hutchinson News obtained through an open records request show that 114 water right holders received a first-offense warning of civil penalties so far this year for overpumping in 2013. Another 70 irrigators were warned a second time — and for a few, a third time — for overpumping, and were issued a $1,000 fine and temporary cutbacks to their annual water use.

A handful of others tried to hide their overpumping and were caught cheating — either falsifying their water-use report or tampering with their meter to make it look like they pumped less.

Letourneau said there are still eight or so cases from 2013 being settled and they are in the hands of the state’s legal department.

The division is ramping up efforts to curb overpumping. Agency officials hope stiffer fines starting with 2013 overpumpers will make it harder for irrigators to misuse a water right.

Besides hefty fines for third-time offenses, second-time offenders are now fined $1,000 and a reduction of their water right in 2014 by two times the amount overpumped. Previously, second offenses brought fines of $500 and a reduction of only the amount overpumped.

Meanwhile, the fourth offense is a water right revocation.

Kansas officials have never had to revoke a water right for overpumping, said Letourneau.

Occasionally, if overpumping is flagrant — or 125 percent more than the water right’s allotment — the agency will immediately opt for a stricter penalty without waiting for repeat offenses, Letourneau said.