SAN ANTONIO — Many San Antonioans might remember the catfish well that pumped millions of gallons from the Edwards Aquifer, and the long-running battle for the rights to that water that changed news and access to San Antonio's water supply.
Ron Pucek's catfish farm opened in 1991 on the southwest side of San Antonio.
"It was really a huge issue in San Antonio's history and its the catfish farm well,” said Anne Hayden, spokesperson for the San Antonio Water System.
At its height, a farm pumped 45 million gallons of water every day. According to the Blue Bulb project, that much water could fill 70 Olympic-sized swimming pools. In 10 days it could fill Houston's Astrodome, and in 15 the Great Pyramid of Giza.
"It was drilled to provide water to a catfish farm and it actually affected the levels of the aquifer all over San Antonio and even at the springs north of San Antonio,” Hayden said.
By 1996 Pucek had been ordered multiple times by city officials to shut down his operation.
"When I finally get the big well the bureaucrats want to come out and take the well from me,” Pucek said back in 1996.
Thanks to Texas Right to Capture Laws, Pucek's business pumping water to raise catfish was legal.
"If you had a well that flowed a lot of water you were entitled," Hayden said.
But the state legislature moved to pass Senate Bill 1477, changing how much water can be pumped from the Edward’s Aquifer.
SAWS purchased property equipment and water rights in the early 2000s for $30 million. Just this month, SAWS completed capping the well. The project cost: just under $1.4 million.
KENS 5 talked to Pucek himself over the phone Monday, who said he couldn't believe the city has capped what he called a "one-in-a-million water well."