(Photo by Will Stone - KJZZ)

Wine growers, like Rod Keeling, have expanded their vineyards in southeast Arizona in the past decade. But a loss of groundwater is now dividing the agriculture community there.

(Photo by Will Stone - KJZZ)

The tasting room for Keeling Schaefer Vineyards is housed in an old bank building in Willcox, Ariz.

When Rod Keeling and his wife planted their first vineyard, they were only the ninth federally licensed winery in Arizona.

“Today there’s about a 100, so there’s been an exponential growth of wineries,” said Keeling. "There's also been an exponential growth of vineyards here in Cochise County."

Keeling has just restocked his tasting room — a restored bank and trust building in the town of Willcox. His vineyard is about 40 miles from here near the Chiricahua Mountains.

“It’s a little higher elevation. We’ve got a seasonal creek that runs in our backyard. We’ve got 60 to 70 live oak trees,” said Keeling.

Keeling runs Keeling Schaefer Vineyards and is also the head of the Arizona Wine Growers Association. He said vintners have come to this southeastern corner of the state for a variety of reasons — the climate, cheap land and, until recently, the promise of readily available water.

But that could now be in jeopardy. The water table is going down. After almost 20 years of drought, the "recharge of the aquifer has been poor," said Keeling.

Domestic wells are going dry, leaving some families without water.

Unlike Maricopa County, where groundwater is regulated, Willcox and other rural parts of the state do not have limits on how much you can pump. Agriculture sustains this economy, but also uses most of the water. As that becomes scarce, Keeling believes they will have to reconsider what can be grown here. Wine grapes, for example, use about a fifth as much water as corn.

“How do we slow down, or stop the overdraft of the aquifer, and grow the economy of the agricultural industry?" he said. "When you think about going to crops that are more efficient and have higher value, wine grapes are kind of at the top of the hill.”

Switching to crops that use less water could be one solution in the long term. What to do now is by no means settled.

Ted and Brent Haas grow pinto beans and other crops in the valley. Their solution is to first halt any new farmland from going into production. It might surprise you this idea is coming from farmers, but a "gold rush mentality" has taken hold here, according to them.

"We’re seeing accelerated overdraft and decline of the aquifer because of higher commodity prices. We're seeing some real estate investment trusts [moving to the valley]. We’re seeing a pretty big influx of California people, because of their drought they’re looking for areas to expand,” said Brent Haas.

The Haas brothers said their goal is to preserve the farms already here. Along with other residents, they are currently gathering signatures and plan to petition the state to intervene by putting in place an "Irrigation Non-Expansions Area" (INA).

The Arizona Department of Water Resources would implement this management tool, which would stop any new acres from being farmed. It would not, however, prevent farmers from drilling new wells. East of the Willcox basin, a similar process is already underway. The state has halted any new farmland from being irrigated and will be holding a hearing in mid May.

But not everyone is on board with this approach. Matt Klump is a rancher in Cochise County who also owns a construction business.

"Just because I don’t farm my ground, doesn’t mean that I may not want to tomorrow, or that my kids may not want to,” said Klump.

Klump said those trying to stop more farming are simply looking out for themselves. After all, their wells would not be subject to any new restrictions. In contrast, Klump’s land, now used for grazing, could never be irrigated and would lose value.

“If it’s such a life-and-death issue, everybody needs to feel the pain equally," said Klump. "Where I have the problem is when they try to tell me that I don’t have the same right to my property at they do.”

Klump does not want any regulation of groundwater. He said economics will take care of the water: only those who can afford to drill deeper will reap the benefits. But the Haas brothers call that thinking shortsighted, especially as wells in the basin go dry.

Still, Klump is not the only one against an INA.

Keeling said halting new acres of farming would shut down the transition to more sustainable crops.

“It would not only damage the vineyards in the Willcox basin, it would also damage the Arizona wine industry," said Keeling. "We’d probably be stuck pretty much right where we are now.”

The majority of wine grapes in Arizona are grown in Cochise County.

For months, all these people — the wine growers, farmers, ranchers and homeowners — have been working on a compromise: legislation that reduces water consumption, helps homeowners, sustains current farming and allows wine growers to expand.

Keeling said none of the current groundwater management tools, which are a result of the 1980 Groundwater Management Act, work for the Willcox basin.

Introducing new legislation to address the water problems in Willcox is not off the table yet, but it would require cooperation among all the different stakeholders.

“We know one thing about water law in Arizona. If there’s no consensus of the locals, it’s not going to happen,” said Keeling.

Consensus might not even solve the problem. People have been pumping groundwater at unsustainable rates for decades. But it would be a start.

After all, more water is not expected anytime soon.

MORE: Rural Arizona Community Reckons With Loss Of Groundwater