By MIKE CORN

mcorn@dailynews.net

COLBY -- Water levels dropped precipitously across Kansas last year -- except in northwest Kansas, where the decline was closer to normal.

"It's nice to have rain," said Wayne Bossert, manager of Colby-based Groundwater Management District No. 4.

GMD 4 saw a decline of just 0.61 of a foot, according to preliminary data released Tuesday by the Kansas Geological Survey.

The KGS and Division of Water Resources annually set off in January to measure water levels in approximately 1,400 wells across Kansas.

Most of the wells tap in to the massive Ogallala Aquifer, although a few use the deeper Dakota Aquifer as a source of water.

With the exception of northwest Kansas, the water level declines were dramatic.

By comparison, the west-central Kansas GMD 1, which includes Wallace County, had an average decline of 2.05 feet. The decline was slightly more than a foot from the previous two years.

In southwest Kansas, GMD 3 had average declines of 3.78 feet last year. In 2010, the decline there was approximately 3 feet. Water levels in that district have fallen 29 feet since 1996.

It was easy to see the drought's effect in the central part of the state, according to the KGS.

In the Big Bend GMD 5, the decline amounted to 2.95 feet. That's a dramatic about-face for an area that actually saw increases from the previous two years.

GMD 2 fell 3.17 feet, also a drop from modest declines from the past two years, and a general increase since 1996.

While Bossert credits conservation -- specifically the retirement of some water rights in the water district -- for easing the decline, he admits most of the credit goes to a close-to-normal rainfall pattern.

"I'm going to tell you our conservation is helping," he said.

Generally, he said, GMD 4 received about 90 percent of its normal precipitation for 2011.

"I've seen eight renditions of how the drought hurt Kansas," Bossert said, and the northwest part of the state got off virtually scot-free.

The nearly two-thirds of a foot decline in the region is slightly more than normal, Bossert said.

"That's pretty typical," he said of the annual declines. "That's almost dead-on to what we would have expected."

With normal rainfall and weather, the declines would have been approximately 0.4 of a foot across the district, which covers all or part of 10 counties.

So far, Bossert only has seen the overall numbers, not the well-by-well numbers that ultimately will be entered into a database maintained by KGS.

How long the area will remain near-normal is uncertain, he admits.

"We're going to dry out sooner or later," Bossert said.