In 1992, an intensive groundwater-use control area (IGUCA) was established in the Wal-nut Creek Valley in central Kansas. Ex-post quasi-experimental control group analysis sug-gested that producers were able to mitigate the initial economic losses by maintaining/expand-ing the production of higher valued crops and by adopting efficient irrigation technologies and practices. It is hypothesized that the ‘certainty’ of water restrictions diminished the economic impacts. The foreknowledge that water use would be restricted into the foreseeable future allowed producers to develop long-run strategies to mitigate economic damages.