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Deposition from United States v. SFWMD, et al., Case No. 88-1886-CIV-HOEVELER |
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Deposition from United States v. SFWMD, et al., Case No. 88-1886-CIV-HOEVELER |
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** 1
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA
CASE NO. 88-1886-CIV-HOEVELER
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, et al., )
)
Plaintiffs, )
)
VS. )
)
SOUTH FLORIDA WATER MANAGEMENT )
DISTRICT; JOHN R. WODRASKA, )
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SOUTH FLORIDA )
WATER MANAGEMENT DISTRICT; )
FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL )
REGULATION; AND DALE TWACHTMANN, )
SECRETARY, FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF )
ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATION, et. al., )
)
Defendants. )
/
DEPOSITION OF JOEL VANARMAN
TAKEN ON BEHALF OF THE PLAINTIFF
VOLUME II
***
DATE: August 27, 1990
PROFESSIONAL REPORTING SERVICE
Commerce Center
324 Datura Street, Suite 303
West Palm Beach, Florida 33401
(407) 659-4046
** 2
INDEX
August 27, 1990 DIRECT CROSS REDIRECT RECROSS
JOEL VANARMAN
By Ms. Beverly Nash 5
By Mr. Joe Richards 11
** 3
The deposition of Joel VanArman, in the
above-entitled and numbered cause, was taken before
me, KAREN BAUER FRY, C.S.R., Court Reporter and
Notary Public for the State of Florida at Large, at
Professional Reporting Service, Commerce Center,
324 Datura Street, in the City of West Palm Beach,
Palm Beach County, in the State of Florida,
beginning at the hour of 9:50 o'clock a.m., on
August 27, 1990, pursuant to the Notice in said
cause for the taking of said deposition, which is
annexed to the Court file herein, on behalf of the
Plaintiff in the above-entitled action pending in
the above-named court.
The appearances at said time and place were
as follows:
Beverly Sherman Nash, Esquire
U.S. Department of Justice
Environmental and Natural
Resources Division
P. O. Box 663
Washington, D.C. 20044-0663
Attorney for Plaintiff
Joseph Richards, Esquire
Peeples, Earl & Blank, P.A.
Two South Biscayne Blvd.
One Biscayne Tower, Suite 3636
Miami, Florida 33131
Attorney for Cities of Belle Glade
and Clewiston
** 4
Katharine Stollman, Esquire
Allison Burdette
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher, & Flom
1440 New York Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005
Attorney for South Florida Water
Management District
Jackie Waters, Esquire
So. Florida Water Management District
Box 24680
3301 Gun Club Road
West Palm Beach, FL 33416
ALSO PRESENT: Toni Lafuente
Mike Rose
David Buker
** 5
MS. STOLLMAN: Before we get started
here this morning, I would just like to propose
that we start at 8:30 in the morning in the next
several days in an effort to try and get the
depositions concluded promptly.
MS. NASH: If my people are available,
I will have to let you know on that.
THEREUPON,
JOEL VANARMAN
being previously sworn to tell the whole truth, as
hereinafter certified, testified as follows:
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MS. NASH:
Q. Mr. VanArman, we were discussing on Friday
the SWIM drafts that you work on. What portions of
the drafts did you write?
MS. STOLLMAN: I would object to this
question. I don't think it's relevant what
portions he wrote. If you want to ask him what
portions he has on his computer, you may answer
that question.
A. I've been responsible for editing much of
** 6
the plans, so at various times, I've had the entire
plan on my computer.
Q. (By Ms. Nash) Do you maintain prior
drafts or versions on your computer?
A. Not as a rule, no.
Q. To your knowledge, are they maintained
anywhere?
A. Not specifically. As I say, each person
is responsible for backing up their own computer
files. I would periodically back-up a section of
the computer -- I mean, of the report that I was
working on until it wound up getting placed into
the central file service. Once I was sure that it
was -- that the final version was in the central
file service, I don't bother keeping a copy any
more.
Q. How was the final version placed in the
central file service?
A. It's placed as a computer file in the main
filing section of the -- the name of the service, I
think, is Central Service, Central Service II, I
think.
Q. And to your knowledge, is that where the
final portions of the various SWIM Plans reside?
A. In the central file service, yes.
** 7
Q. As you were working on your portions, did
you send them electronically to others in the Water
Management District?
A. Yes.
Q. To whom?
A. The authors on the plan were myself, Dave
Swift, John Mulliken, Sarah Bellmund, and
occasionally Tony Federico and Paul Whalen.
Q. And you utilized the Xerox network to send
these to the others you mentioned?
A. That's right. There's a mail service on
the networks, so we can just put the file in the
mail service, and then, it would be mailed over to
the other work station.
Q. You testified on Friday that you did not
do or write up any of the analyses in the SWIM
Plan; is that correct?
A. Basically, it's my understanding, from the
people that were putting together the sections,
that the analyses were being done by our Water
Quality Division, and the analyzed data were
mailed to us.
Q. Do you know who within the Water Quality
Division?
A. It was primarily, I think, Brad Jones,
** 8
Dave Soballe. And within our department, there was
a guy named Guy Germane.
Q. Are you aware of any files, computer files
in your division being destroyed or lost?
A. That happens periodically, yes. We have
problems with the work stations and with the
servers and --
Q. Are you aware of that happening to Paul
Whalen's files?
A. Not specifically. His computer did fail
at one point. I can't recall exactly when that
was, but I remember there being a -- his work
station having a hard error on the drive.
Q. Do you know whether there was any back-up
to what was on Mr. Whalen's computer when that
happened?
A. It would only be whatever he kept himself
-- whatever his back-up schedule was.
Q. You testified on Friday that in your
division GIS work is done on the SUN work stations?
A. That is right.
Q. Who in your division does the GIS work on
the SUN stations?
A. I think the people working on it primarily
are Brent Moll, Les Vilchek, and Patty Sime.
** 9
Q. Do you know what type of GIS data they
work with?
A. No.
Q. Do you know the nature of the GIS analyses
that they do?
A. Only in the most general terms. I think
they're doing work on the -- trying to interpret
the effects of hydroperiod on wetlands or something
like that.
Q. Do you know whether they're doing any work
related to vegetation?
MS. STOLLMAN: I don't want you to
speculate. You can answer that, if you know.
A. Yes, that's what their work is related to.
Q. (By Ms. Nash) Do you know whether they're
doing any work related to pesticides?
A. No. That is, no, I don't know that
they're doing any work with pesticides.
Q. What other projects besides SWIM do you
work on?
A. There probably are some, but I can't think
of any right at the moment.
Q. Have you --
A. It's an all consuming task.
Q. Have you worked on the Lake Okeechobee
** 10
Technical Advisory Committee reports?
A. At one point in time, when they were
putting together the final report on that, I
provided some assistance to Frank Lund on actually
-- on doing the final document.
Q. And what was the nature of that
assistance?
A. Just the final formatting of it, the final
layout.
Q. Did you yourself write any portions of the
document?
A. No.
Q. Do you do any work or have you done any
work on projects specifically related to the
Everglades Agricultural Area?
A. With the exception of the Everglades SWIM
Plan, no.
Q. How about with relation to the Water
Conservation Areas?
MS. STOLLMAN: I would object to
these questions except to the extent that you're
trying to find out if he has any information on his
computer.
MS. NASH: That is the intent of
these questions.
** 11
A. No.
Q. (By Ms. Nash) What about with relation to
the Nutrient Removal Project?
A. No.
Q. Were you asked to compile a list of your
computer files for this litigation?
A. Yes.
Q. To whom did you provide that information?
A. I think it was you, Tony, wasn't it?
MS. NASH: I have no further
questions.
CROSS-EXAMINATION
QUESTION BY MR. RICHARDS:
Q. Mr. VanArman, my name is Joe Richards. I
represent the cities of Belle Glade and Clewiston.
A. Hi, Joe.
Q. In regard to the Everglades SWIM Plan, do
you know whether each draft that was released to
the public has been retained on the computer
format?
A. I know we've kept written copies of all
the previous drafts. In the case of the computer
files, I don't believe so.
** 12
Q. Who might know if they were retained in
the computer format?
A. I'm not sure who would know. I would
guess Paul Whalen might have kept track of that.
Q. Do you know who the various authors of the
SWIM Plan are?
A. I think so.
Q. Could you list them for me?
MS. STOLLMAN: I believe this has
been asked and answered.
MR. RICHARDS: I don't think it has.
A. They're on the front page of the plan. As
best as I can recall, the primary authors would be
myself, as editor, John Mulliken, as editor, Dave
Swift as the author of the water -- sections
related to Water Conservation Areas in EAA, Sarah
Bellmund is the author of sections related of C-111
basin and Everglades National Park. Louise Boss
is a contributing author; and there were several
other contributing authors. I'm not exactly sure.
I think Steve Davis is one of those.
Q. (By Mr. Richards) Do you know whether
these individuals retained their work on their
computer files?
A. I would think so.
** 13
Q. Do you know whether the SWIM Plan has
ever been provided to anyone outside the district
in a computer format?
MS. STOLLMAN: Is your question
limited to whether it's been provided via
computer transmission?
MR. RICHARDS: Yes.
A. I don't think so. It's possible that
parts of it may have been, but I mean, I don't even
recall that happening. It's kind of a major
problem to translate it into any other format than
the Xerox format.
Q. (By Mr. Richards) Do you know whether
there would be a problem to provide the SWIM Plan
in a computer format to someone outside the
district?
A. There's two primary problems. The first
one is the text part of it, you know, that's fairly
straightforward. You can convert the text into a
text format that's compatible with IBM or some
other format.
The tables and graphics are very difficult
to make a conversion to a format that people can --
other than the people with the Xerox work stations
-- to another company or organization that had
** 14
Xerox work stations, we could do them.
MR. RICHARDS: I have no further
questions. Thank you.
(The deposition was concluded at
10:05 o'clock a.m.)
