1
1 Division of Administrative Hearings
2 Department of Administration, State of Florida
3 SUGAR CANE GROWERS COOPERATIVE )
of FLORIDA; ROTH FARMS, INC.; and, )
4 WEDGEWORTH FARMS, INC., )
Petitioners, )
5 V ) DOAH
SOUTH FLORIDA WATER MANAGEMENT ) Case 92-3038
6 DISTRICT, an agency of the State )
of Florida; et al., )
7 Respondents. )
FLORIDA SUGAR CANE LEAGUE, INC.; )
8 UNITED STATES SUGAR CORPORATION; )
and NEW HOPE SOUTH, INC., )
9 Petitioners, )
V ) DOAH
10 SOUTH FLORIDA WATER MANAGEMENT ) Case 92-3039
DISTRICT, an agency of the State )
11 of Florida; et al., )
Respondents. )
12 FLORIDA FRUIT and VEGETABLE )
ASSOCIATION; LEWIS POPE FARMS; )
13 W.E. SCHLECHTER & SONS, INC., )
and HUNDLEY FARMS, INC., )
14 Petitioners, )
V ) DOAH
15 SOUTH FLORIDA WATER MANAGEMENT ) Case 92-3040
DISTRICT, an agency of the State )
16 of Florida; et al., )
Respondents. )
17
18 Deposition of Wayne Beardsley
19 Taken before April Y. Sapp, Court Reporter
and Notary Public in and for the State of Florida at
20 large, pursuant to notice of taking deposition filed
by the Petitioners in the above cause.
21
Monday Wednesday July 7, 1993
22 319 Clematis Street, 5th Floor
West Palm Beach, Florida 33401
23 9:00 - 11:30 a.m.
1:15 - 1:55 p.m.
24
2
1 APPEARANCES:
2
On behalf of the Petitioners Florida Sugar
3 Cane League, Inc., United State Sugar Corp.,
and New South Hope, Inc.:
4 Peeples, Earl & Blank, P.A.
One Biscayne Tower, Suite 3636
5 Two South Biscayne Boulevard
Miami, Florida 33131
6 By: RICHARD RUSSELL, ESQUIRE
7 On behalf of the State of Florida
Department of Environmental Regulation:
8 Assistant General Counsel
Department of Environmental Regulation
9 2600 Blair Stone Road
Tallahassee, Florida 32399-2400
10 By: DONNA LaPLANT, ESQUIRE
11
On behalf of the Intervenor United States of America:
12 U.S. Department of Justice
Environmental and Natural Resourses Division
13 601 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W.
Room 877
14 Washington, D.C. 20004
By: BRIAN FERRELL, ESQUIRE
15
16 - - -
3
1 - - -
2 I N D E X
3 - - -
4
5 WITNESS: DIRECT CROSS REDIRECT RECROSS
6 Wayne Beardsley
7
BY MS. LaPLANT 4 62-76
8 BY MR. FERRELL 56 72
9
4
1 - - -
2 E X H I B I T S
3 - - -
4
5 NUMBER PAGE
6 EXB. NO. 1 7
7 Notice of taking deposition
8 EXB. NO. 2 10
9 Witness designation
10 EXB. NO. 3 39
11 Excerpt of 3-13-92 SWIM Plan
12 EXB. NO. 4 66
13 U.S. Sugar Corporation:
14 Implementation of a Strategy to Revitalize
15 the Everglades and Preserve Farming
16 EXB. NO. 5 78
17 List of pumping practices
18 EXB. NO. 6 90
19 Hutcheon Engineering document
20 EXB. NO. 7 94
21 Memo from Andreis to Polhill 8-4-92
22 EXB. NO. 8 95
23 Memo from Beardsley to Buker 7-7-92
24 EXB. NO. 9 97
25 Memo from Dobbs to Beardsley, Moore & Wilson
5
1 - - -
2 E X H I B I T S
3 - - -
4 NUMBER PAGE
5 EXB. NO. 10 99
6 U.S. Sugar BMP booklet by Andreis
7 EXB. NO. 11 110
8 Memo from Wade, Jr. re: USSC
9 Alternative Plan
10 EXB. NO. 12 111
11 Handwritten notes of Beardsley
12 EXB. NO. 13 113
13 Page from SFWMD publication
14 EXB. NO. 14 115
15 Memo from Bottcher & Izuno
16 EXB. NO. 15 120
17 U.S. Sugar publication: Update on
18 Phosphorous Activities
6
1 P R O C E E D I N G S
2 - - -
3 Thereupon,
4 Wayne Beardsley,
5 being by the undersigned Notary Public first duly
6 sworn, was examined and testified as follows:
7 THE WITNESS: I do.
8 DIRECT (Wayne Beardsley)
9 BY MS. LaPLANT:
10 Q. Good morning, Mr. Beardsley. I'm Donna
11 LaPlant from DER in Tallahassee. I'm going to be
12 questioning you regarding what's generally known as
13 the Everglades SWIM Plan litigation.
14 Are you familiar with that litigation?
15 A. Somewhat.
16 Q. Okay. Have you ever been deposed before?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. In what context?
19 A. A civil suit involving some chemical
20 liability and a suit involving the foreign labor
21 issues in the sugar industry.
22 Q. And when was that?
23 A. Year and a half ago.
24 Q. Okay. You were a fact witness for both of
25 those cases as opposed to an expert witness?
7
1 A. I couldn't -- I'm not sure.
2 Q. Okay. All right. I'm going to give you
3 just some general guidelines for the deposition. I
4 know that you've been through this before, but if you
5 don't hear a question, say so and I can repeat it.
6 If you don't understand a question, I'll rephrase it
7 so that you understand it and if you don't remember
8 the information necessary to answer a question, just
9 say so.
10 Do you understand the instructions?
11 A. Yes, ma'am.
12 MS. LAPLANT: Okay. I'd like to mark as
13 Exhibit 1 the notice of taking deposition of
14 Mr. Beardsley.
15 (The document was marked
16 Exb. No. 1.)
17 BY MS. LaPLANT:
18 Q. Mr. Beardsley, did you produce documents in
19 response to our request?
20 A. Yes, ma'am.
21 Q. Who asked you to produce documents? Who
22 asked you to produce the documents?
23 A. In the notice and my attorney.
24 Q. Okay. So Mr. Russell?
25 A. Yes.
8
1 Q. Okay. And so you assembled these documents
2 yourself or did you have help doing it?
3 A. I assembled them myself.
4 Q. Okay. And, just for the record, have any
5 documents not been produced?
6 A. Yes. There are some that have not been
7 produced.
8 Q. Okay.
9 MR. RUSSELL: Maybe I could interject for a
10 moment on two different matters.
11 MS. LaPLANT: Okay.
12 MR. RUSSELL: First of all, there were two
13 documents that are considered to be work
14 product.
15 MS. LaPLANT: Right.
16 MR. RUSSELL: And they were just discovered
17 late yesterday afternoon so we don't have a
18 list, but a list of the two will be forthcoming.
19 And the other matter that involved
20 documents that may be responsive that were not
21 produced regard the objections to several of the
22 requests that we discussed on the phone last
23 week. I faxed a letter to your office
24 yesterday, just confirming that we had had that
25 conversation, that there were voluminous
9
1 documents on several of the paragraphs,
2 specifically 6, 7 and 8 that -- and I've
3 enumerated them in the objections that I will
4 now give to you and at that time you said that
5 you weren't interested in a bunch of documents
6 that weren't relative to his testimony and the
7 issues involved so we didn't respond to those
8 for the reasons stated in there.
9 MS. LaPLANT: Well, of course, I'm not
10 interested in anything that's not relevant to
11 the request, however, Mr. Beardsley is a fact
12 witness and his testimony is rather broad in
13 scope.
14 I'll look at that later.
15 MR. RUSSELL: Okay.
16 BY MS. LaPLANT:
17 Q. Did you, Mr. Beardsley, review any
18 documents in preparing for your testimony today?
19 A. Just as -- I reviewed my files to pull out
20 those documents that we did produce. That's all.
21 Q. Okay. And what documents did you review?
22 A. I reviewed all of my files that had to do
23 with water control.
24 Q. And what was your purpose in reviewing
25 those documents?
10
1 A. To ascertain that they were applicable to
2 what I was asked to produce.
3 Q. About how long did you spend reviewing your
4 documents?
5 A. All total better part of one day.
6 Q. Did you discuss your deposition prep with
7 anyone?
8 A. Yes. With my attorney.
9 Q. And what did you discuss with him?
10 MR. RUSSELL: I would object to the extent
11 that it involves attorney/client communications,
12 but you can generally tell her what you did.
13 THE WITNESS: We went over the rules of the
14 deposition; tell the truth and basically that
15 was it. And to review what was meant by this
16 notice and the obtaining of those documents.
17 MS. LaPLANT: Okay. I'd like to mark as
18 Exhibit 2 Mr. Beardsley's witness designation.
19 (The document was marked
20 Exb. No. 2.)
21 BY MS. LaPLANT:
22 Q. Have you seen this before?
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. Who showed it to you?
25 A. Mr. Russell.
11
1 Q. Are you aware that Florida Sugar Cane
2 League has identified you as a fact witness?
3 A. As a fact witness, no, I wouldn't be aware
4 of what kind of witness.
5 Q. Okay. Have you discussed this designation
6 with anyone?
7 A. Mr. Russell.
8 Q. And when was that?
9 A. Last week and again yesterday.
10 Q. Okay. If you take just a minute to read
11 what your subject matter of expected testimony is.
12 Do you generally agree with your areas of knowledge?
13 A. Yes, ma'am.
14 Q. Okay. Have you been asked to offer any
15 opinions in any of these areas?
16 A. I'm not sure what you mean by opinions. I
17 have been --
18 Q. Okay. For instance, regarding BMPs, have
19 you been asked to formulate an opinion about BMPs'
20 effects on U.S. Sugar's agricultural practices?
21 A. There's so many BMPs and --
22 Q. Uh huh.
23 A. -- I have been asked to formulate some
24 BMPs.
25 MR. RUSSELL: I don't know if Mr. Beardsley
12
1 understands that -- whether -- you're asking
2 him: Is he going to provide opinion testimony?
3 No. He's listed as a fact witness for facts
4 only.
5 MS. LaPLANT: Correct.
6 MR. RUSSELL: And I'm not sure. He may be
7 confused a bit about whether or not, in fact,
8 he's going to be offering a lay opinion which is
9 no. I can answer that for you, but if he's
10 confused or you want him to answer that same
11 thing, he can answer that question now now that
12 he knows, but --
13 BY MS. LaPLANT:
14 Q. Well, I'm not asking you to render an
15 expert opinion about anything. I'm just asking you
16 for your opinions about the facts of the case which
17 we'll get into later but can go on.
18 Have you prepared any summaries in
19 preparation for this deposition?
20 A. No.
21 Q. Do you anticipate doing so?
22 A. No, ma'am.
23 Q. Are you familiar with the SWIM -- the
24 Everglades SWIM Plan document?
25 A. I have seen it.
13
1 Q. Have you read the final document dated
2 March 13th?
3 A. No, I have not.
4 Q. Have you read any drafts of it?
5 A. I have seen some drafts. I have taken
6 notice of them, but I have not read any thoroughly.
7 Q. So have you read parts of some of them?
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. Has anyone asked you to do so?
10 A. No.
11 Q. And why did you read them in the first
12 place?
13 A. Because I went to a public meeting and some
14 drafts were handed out to anybody who wanted one. I
15 scanned through it and stuck it in the file.
16 Q. Mr. Russell has stated that you don't have
17 a current resume. Is that correct?
18 A. That's correct.
19 Q. Okay. Where did you attend high school?
20 A. Clewiston High School.
21 Q. Did you attend college?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. Where was that?
24 A. University of Florida.
25 Q. What was your major?
14
1 A. Agricultural economics.
2 Q. Currently you're holding the position of
3 Superintendent of United States Sugar, is that
4 correct?
5 A. That was recently -- title was recently
6 changed approximately three weeks ago to General
7 Manager of the Western Division.
8 Q. Okay. What does that job entail?
9 A. The planting, land preparation,
10 cultivation, harvesting of sugar cane; the planting
11 and coordinating.
12 Q. So do you oversee other people that plant
13 sugar cane?
14 A. Yes, ma'am.
15 Q. Do you grow any vegetables?
16 A. No, I do not.
17 Q. Okay. And you've held that position for
18 only three weeks, is that what you said?
19 A. General Manager. Simply a title change.
20 Q. Okay. So previously you were
21 Superintendent. What are the differences in the two
22 jobs?
23 A. None.
24 Q. Why was your title changed?
25 A. I have no idea.
15
1 Q. How long have you been -- were you
2 Superintendent before you were General Manager?
3 A. Approximately nine years.
4 Q. What did you do before that?
5 A. I was the Assistant Superintendent of the
6 Western Division.
7 Q. And what did you do in that job?
8 A. I was in charge of all the field operations
9 that encompassed the jobs that I previously
10 mentioned.
11 Q. And how long were you Assistant
12 Superintendent?
13 A. Approximately three years.
14 Q. And what position did you hold before that?
15 A. Technical Assistant Western Division.
16 Q. For how long?
17 A. Approximately six or seven years.
18 Q. What did that job entail?
19 A. It entailed acting as a staff person
20 primarily dealing with agricultural chemicals, the
21 applications and various other jobs that were
22 assigned to me, projects and jobs assigned by the
23 Division Superintendent.
24 Q. And before that what did you do?
25 A. I can't -- I can't remember my title. I
16
1 guess it was Agricultural Chemist -- Field Chemist
2 would be the title. Field Chemist.
3 Q. And was that right after you got out of
4 college? Are we getting back that far?
5 A. Yes. Very soon.
6 Q. Did you go on to get a master's?
7 A. No, I did not.
8 Q. Have you published any papers or articles?
9 A. No.
10 Q. If you could, I'd like you to explain
11 briefly the organization of U.S. Sugar just in a very
12 general way. Like when was it founded?
13 A. I couldn't speak to exact dates of when it
14 might have been founded except to say it was in the
15 early 1930s --
16 Q. Uh huh.
17 A. -- as a successor to the old Southern Sugar
18 Corporation.
19 Q. How does it operate?
20 MR. RUSSELL: I'm going to object as
21 ambiguous.
22 If you understand what she's asking you,
23 you can answer.
24 BY MS. LaPLANT:
25 Q. How does it operate as a business? Are
17
1 there individual farmers or how does it work?
2 A. U.S. Sugar is a corporation, now a private
3 corporation --
4 Q. Uh huh.
5 A. -- set up along what I guess you might
6 refer to as standard corporate management lines that
7 is engaged in the growing and processing of sugar
8 cane into raw sugar and has a subsidiary involved in
9 vegetable operations, formerly engaged in cattle
10 production operations and has recently become
11 involved in citrus operations in which they have
12 their own citrus groves and are constructing a citrus
13 processing plant.
14 Q. If you know how many acres of sugar cane
15 does U.S. Sugar own presently in the EAA?
16 A. I don't mean to be facetious, but when you
17 say in the EAA, I would have to do some calculation
18 because they do own some that are outside what my
19 understanding of the EAA boundaries are.
20 MR. RUSSELL: If you know the answer then
21 answer it, if you know how many acres.
22 Would you repeat the question, please.
23 BY MS. LaPLANT:
24 Q. If you don't know how many acres there are
25 in the EAA specifically, do you know how many acres
18
1 U.S. Sugar owns generally?
2 A. No, I do not know how many they own.
3 Q. Are you saying own as opposed to lease?
4 A. Lease, yes, ma'am.
5 Q. Okay. Do you know how much U.S. Sugar owns
6 and leases and/or any other way they may run -- raise
7 sugar cane on that land? I'm not trying to be
8 specific as far as own versus lease.
9 MR. RUSSELL: Counsel, your question is how
10 many acres they are -- U.S. Sugar is actually
11 cultivating in sugar cane?
12 If you know that answer, answer that.
13 THE WITNESS: That answer would be
14 approximately 120,000 acres.
15 BY MS. LaPLANT:
16 Q. 125,000, is that what you said?
17 A. 120,000.
18 Q. And what about the citrus that you had
19 referred to earlier?
20 A. Approximately 19,000 acres. I would add
21 that that is in total, not necessarily within the
22 EAA.
23 Q. All right. In what locations is sugar
24 grown other than the EAA, what you consider to be the
25 EAA
19
1 A. By location, do you mean our farm
2 designation or farm name?
3 Q. Well, first of all, let me ask you what
4 your understanding of the EAA is. What does that
5 consist of?
6 A. My understanding of the EAA is that the
7 western boundary is what I know as L-1, L-2, L-3
8 levee system down to Water Conservation Area 3 and
9 then back to the east. I am not sure of the eastern
10 boundary since I am not involved in that, not
11 familiar with that side of the EAA. With the
12 deletion of what I know as the S-4 basin, anything
13 west of that L-1, 2 and 3 system.
14 Q. Are statistics kept on the yields per acre
15 of sugar cane?
16 A. Yes, ma'am.
17 Q. Who keeps those statistics?
18 A. Many, many people would.
19 Q. All right. Who compiles those statistics?
20 A. Our Agriculture Department.
21 Q. And about how many people are involved in
22 that process?
23 A. It involves people outside of our
24 department, computer staff and so forth. I couldn't
25 answer that question.
20
1 Q. Okay. I'd like to get into how -- the
2 actual process of growing sugar cane in the EAA. I'm
3 going to ask you a series of questions about that.
4 First of all, how does the field have to be
5 prepared before the cane is planted?
6 A. That can vary widely.
7 Q. Okay.
8 A. If it's continuation of sugar cane on
9 fields prior to that, had sugar cane in them also,
10 the land preparation would involve what we call
11 disking.
12 Q. What is that?
13 A. That's -- some people know that as
14 harrowing which it's pulled behind a tractor and it
15 destroys any vegetative matter that was growing there
16 so that it can be properly prepared into a clean seed
17 bed. It may also --
18 Q. Besides harrowing, does the field have to
19 be leveled?
20 A. It may or may not.
21 Q. Under what circumstances would it have to
22 be leveled?
23 A. As far as our farm manager, whether the
24 field is level enough in his opinion, whether it
25 warrants some leveling.
21
1 Q. How do you go about leveling?
2 A. There are land levelers, implements some
3 which are equipped with laser units so that the
4 leveling can be done to a very fine tolerance that
5 are pulled across the field that move the dirt around
6 so it becomes level.
7 Q. Is the leveling -- do you do the leveling
8 process after any given harvest to level the land?
9 Does it have to be done on a continual basis?
10 A. Not necessarily.
11 Q. What's the growing season for sugar cane?
12 A. Year round.
13 Q. So there's no specific season in which it's
14 planted or harvested?
15 A. The planting season generally begins in --
16 sometime in September or early October and may extend
17 through mid January.
18 Q. Do you allow some fields to lie fallow at
19 certain times?
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. Do you do crop rotation?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. And why would the crops be rotated?
24 A. To -- so that during the fallow period, or
25 shall we say non sugar cane period, that -- there's
22
1 some benefits that may be derived from flooding of
2 the land, if rice is a rotational crop, for insect
3 and weed control.
4 Q. What do you mean by benefits from flooding
5 the land?
6 A. It's a long time practice that flooding the
7 land helps to kill soil born insects, destroy some
8 weed and grass seeds, prevents wind erosion.
9 Q. Can you explain what the term, "fallow"
10 means?
11 A. Fallow means to be out of production of a
12 specific crop that one may be engaged in producing.
13 Q. Does that mean that you might grow another
14 crop on a fallow field?
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. What crops might you grow on sugar cane
17 fields when they're not being used for sugar?
18 A. Rice, corn and what we might refer to
19 simply as a cover crop.
20 Q. What benefits are there to growing
21 different crops on sugar land?
22 A. For the rice crops, those which I just
23 mentioned. For corn some added economic value to
24 that land, what is known as a cash crop. For the
25 cover crops, certain cover crops are legumes which
23
1 help to add some nitrogen, nitrification back to the
2 soil and while that cover crop is growing, it
3 prevents other weeds and grasses from becoming
4 established in the field while it's in the fallow
5 stage.
6 Q. Now, after the field has been leveled, if
7 it needed to be leveled and furrowed, how is the
8 sugar cane planted?
9 A. The sugar cane seed pieces are actually
10 stalks of sugar cane which are dropped end to end,
11 also generally a double line end to end in the bottom
12 of the furrow, soil insecticide may or may not be
13 applied after that operation and then the furrow is
14 covered over with dirt.
15 Q. How do you determine whether or not
16 insecticide is applied?
17 A. If a field has had rice as a rotational
18 crop planted on it we do not apply insecticide.
19 Q. Would you automatically use insecticide if
20 the crop were sugar?
21 A. Current practice is yes.
22 Q. What kinds of insecticides do you use?
23 A. It's organic phosphate type of insecticides
24 that are registered by EPA for use in sugar cane for
25 that purpose.
24
1 Q. Does it need to be applied only at the
2 beginning of the crop growth or do you need to
3 reapply it throughout the growth of the crop?
4 A. That's a bit of a trick question between
5 designating between the need to apply and the actual
6 ability to apply. The ability to apply is only at
7 the beginning.
8 Q. Okay. How often is it actually applied?
9 A. Once. At the beginning.
10 Q. How do you go about fertilizing the sugar
11 cane? What method of fertilization do you use?
12 A. What do you mean, the application method?
13 Q. Do you use banding or broadcasting?
14 A. We use banding.
15 Q. Can you explain that process?
16 A. Fertilizer is put into a fertilizer
17 distributor or implement that is pulled through the
18 field by tractor and the implement is designed and
19 built such that it allows the fertilizer to come out
20 of the implement in a small band on each side of the
21 row of sugar cane.
22 Q. Are you familiar with broadcast
23 fertilizing?
24 A. Yes, ma'am.
25 Q. Do you use that at all?
25
1 A. Current practice, no.
2 Q. Does banding -- using the banding method of
3 fertilization, is that more economical than broadcast
4 fertilization?
5 A. I couldn't answer that. I don't know.
6 Q. Does it use less fertilizer, the banding
7 method, then broadcasting?
8 A. For sugar cane?
9 Q. Uh huh.
10 A. I couldn't fully answer that because I
11 don't do anything on the development of the rates of
12 fertilizer that are recommended.
13 Q. Okay. Do you have any idea of how much
14 fertilizer you might apply per acre to sugar cane?
15 A. That would vary on the soil types and the
16 need for application, but I do know that we have
17 fields that we apply no fertilizer to.
18 Q. Can you give an average amount of
19 fertilizer that you would apply?
20 A. I would have to do a lot of work to come up
21 with some kind of average.
22 Q. So you can't give any estimation at all?
23 A. No. It can vary so widely in different
24 acreages, I couldn't do that. I couldn't give you an
25 estimate.
26
1 Q. Okay. So you couldn't give me any high or
2 low parameters as far as how much fertilizer is used
3 on an acre of sugar cane?
4 MR. RUSSELL: He's -- asked and answered.
5 BY MS. LaPLANT:
6 Q. You can respond to the question.
7 MR. RUSSELL: Would you repeat the
8 question?
9 BY MS. LaPLANT:
10 Q. The question was: Can you give any high or
11 low parameters regarding how much fertilizer you
12 apply to an acre of sugar cane?
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. And what would those be?
15 A. From none to an upper limit within the EAA,
16 is that the question?
17 Q. Yes.
18 A. In some very limited areas within the EAA
19 there would be a minor part that might receive as
20 much as 1,300 pounds per acre.
21 Q. How long does it take sugar cane to reach
22 maturity?
23 A. That's a question I guess researchers have
24 been working on for hundreds of years. Sugar cane,
25 traditionally within Florida's conditions, we
27
1 consider it to be 12 months.
2 Q. Do you know what a ratoon is?
3 A. Yes, ma'am.
4 Q. Can you define that for me?
5 A. It is the regrowth of an initial planting
6 of a crop after it's been harvested.
7 Q. What's the purpose of a ratoon? What's it
8 used for? Does an additional crop come out of it?
9 A. Ratoon would by necessity then mean that
10 we're dealing with a perineal crop.
11 Q. What does that mean?
12 A. Perineal crop is a crop that its life cycle
13 is for more than one year. The ratoon is simply --
14 the purpose of it is God gave it the ability to have
15 that. I don't mean to be facetious, but we are able
16 to harvest the ratoon crop. The regrowth, we can
17 harvest that again.
18 Q. For how many years?
19 A. That varies again widely from locations,
20 climatic conditions, insect problems, water control
21 problems and so forth and so on. It can vary quite
22 widely. Generally the average in Florida is
23 considered to be three to four crops.
24 Q. How do you determine when the ratoon stalk
25 is exhausted?
28
1 A. From our production records from the
2 preceding harvest as well as visual observation of
3 the regrowth.
4 Q. When it's decided that the ratoon stubble
5 won't be used for an additional crop what do you do
6 with the field?
7 A. The first thing is, by the disking or
8 harrowing operation that I referred to, is to destroy
9 the remnants of the ratoon crop.
10 Q. I'd like to now get into a little bit about
11 water level. Is water level control important to
12 growing sugar cane?
13 A. Yes, ma'am.
14 Q. Why is it important?
15 A. To adequately supply sufficient water to
16 the plant for optimum growth.
17 Q. What happens if the water level is too
18 high?
19 A. The extreme would be that the crop would
20 die.
21 Q. And why would it die?
22 A. The deprivation of oxygen primarily through
23 the root system over an extended period of time would
24 cause the plant to die.
25 Q. What happens if the water level is too low?
29
1 A. Again, the plant could die.
2 Q. Are sugar cane's roots more tolerant of
3 flooded conditions or of a high hydroperiod than
4 vegetable roots?
5 A. There are many, many kinds of vegetables
6 and I would rather some scientist answer that. I
7 couldn't.
8 Q. In general, you don't have any thoughts on
9 that?
10 A. In general, sugar cane tends to be more
11 tolerant.
12 Q. Why is that?
13 A. The nature of the plant.
14 Q. How long would the sugar cane roots have to
15 remain in standing water for them to be irreparably
16 damaged or for the cane to die?
17 A. I can't answer that. Because --
18 Q. Is that your answer, you can't answer that?
19 Do you think excess water or high
20 hydroperiod is a problem in sugar cane production?
21 A. It can be.
22 Q. What is an adequate water table for sugar
23 measured at?
24 A. I can't answer that with a snap shot given
25 water table for cane growth.
30
1 Q. You can't give an average depth of water?
2 A. I have to know more in terms of the
3 question to be able to answer it. I have to know the
4 stage of the crop, other climatic conditions and so
5 forth.
6 Q. Okay. How do you measure the water table?
7 A. On our farms we actually measure the canal
8 system levels. There are some measurements done by
9 others within the company that actually determine
10 field water tables.
11 Q. Do you know what a site gauge is?
12 A. A site gauge to me is any site gauge on
13 fuel tanks, water tanks, whatever. In reference to
14 some water table readings or something, then I would
15 not know.
16 Q. Okay. How do you irrigate the sugar crop
17 if there's not enough water?
18 A. If there's not enough water within the
19 field and water is available from other sources we
20 either by pumping or by gravity control allow water
21 to come in and raise the canal water levels, which in
22 turn tends to raise the field water tables.
23 Q. If the water is pumped where is it pumped
24 from?
25 A. It may come from within a water basin such
31
1 as a 298 district or it may come from South Florida
2 Water Management's primary canal system.
3 Q. Now, what did you mean when you used the
4 term, "by gravity"?
5 A. In some locations -- some farm locations
6 the outside water levels are higher than the required
7 or needed at that time canal level on the interior of
8 the farm so we can simply open some gates and allow
9 water to gravity feed into that area.
10 Q. If there's too much water on the crop how
11 would that be -- how would the water be controlled or
12 drawn down?
13 A. Again, within -- an area would have to be
14 pumped unless the, again, the outside water level is
15 lower than the interior basin, farm or canal water
16 levels then we can simply gravity feed it out.
17 Q. Where would it be pumped to?
18 A. It may be pumped within the farm to other
19 areas in which there is not excess water and it may
20 be pumped off of the farm either into a 298 district
21 or again into the South Florida Water Management
22 primary canal systems.
23 Q. Prior to harvesting a sugar cane crop does
24 the water have to be drawn down to any certain level?
25 A. There is no certain level, no.
32
1 Q. Does the water have to be drawn down at
2 all?
3 A. Not necessarily.
4 Q. Under what conditions would it have to be
5 drawn down prior to harvesting?
6 A. Prior rainy, wet or excess water
7 conditions.
8 Q. Why are the sugar cane fields burned prior
9 to harvest?
10 A. To remove the extraneous dry matter trash
11 that hampers field harvesting operations.
12 Q. And how exactly is the field burned?
13 A. Every field burn is different due to the
14 existing climatic conditions, but all fields are
15 burned under the burning regulations of the Florida
16 Division of Forestry and their regulations that apply
17 to and permitting system that apply to sugar cane
18 field burning.
19 Q. How is the sugar cane crop harvested?
20 A. Either by hand or mechanical means.
21 Q. When the crop is actually cut is that done
22 by hand or machine?
23 A. One or the other.
24 Q. It could be either or both?
25 A. Yes.
33
1 Q. In any given field?
2 A. Not both.
3 Q. So in a given field it's either by hand or
4 machine?
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. And what about the collection process of
7 collecting all the cut sugar cane, is that by hand or
8 machine?
9 A. When harvested mechanically, the machine
10 both cuts and collects it --
11 Q. Uh huh.
12 A. -- at the same time. If harvested by hand
13 then the cane is collected by machine.
14 Q. All right. Can you describe the process of
15 harvesting sugar by hand? How is that accomplished?
16 A. Hand cutters are assigned a cut row which
17 consists of two rows -- linear rows of sugar cane.
18 Two cutters work together as partners and pile the
19 portions of the stalks that they are instructed to
20 cut for milling purposes together to make one heap
21 row, so therefore a heap row consists of four linear
22 rows of sugar cane. The immature portions of the
23 stalk, the tops, the secondary growth, etc. is piled
24 into a trash row that alternates between the heap
25 rows. Then the heap rows of sugar cane are gathered
34
1 mechanically by what is known as a continuous loader
2 and collected, if you will, in which the stalks are
3 cut into shorter pieces and placed into field
4 transport wagons which in turn are transported from
5 the field to some central transfer point and
6 transferred either into trucks or rail cars for
7 delivery to the sugar mill.
8 Q. What implements or tools are used in
9 harvesting the cane by hand?
10 A. Do you mean what tools does a hand worker --
11 Q. Yes.
12 A. -- use?
13 He is -- he uses a cane knife.
14 Q. Is that it? That's the only implement
15 used?
16 A. That's the only implement used for cutting
17 of the cane.
18 Q. What's -- are there any advantages to hand
19 harvesting versus machine harvesting?
20 A. Yes, ma'am.
21 Q. What are they?
22 A. The hand worker through his physical
23 actions selects those portions of the cane stalk
24 which are most desirous of -- for making sugar on an
25 individual basis. The mechanical harvester cannot do
35
1 that. It collects anything and everything.
2 Secondly, as I described in the hand cutting
3 operation, there are four linear rows of cane placed
4 into one heap row requiring field transports then to
5 move through the field for every fourth row, if you
6 will, and a mechanical harvester requires the field
7 transport and the mechanical harvester itself to go
8 back and forth through the field for every single
9 row.
10 Q. Okay. After the sugar cane is cut and
11 gathered together how is it transported to the mill?
12 A. As I mentioned, either by truck or by rail
13 car.
14 Q. Okay. Now, is there a time frame in which
15 you should get the sugar to the mill for the optimum
16 quality?
17 A. That again is not an absolute. It depends
18 on climatic conditions but, in general, harvesting
19 operations should be such that with all due speed
20 sugar cane is transported to the mill for processing
21 as quickly as possible.
22 Q. What happens to the raw sugar once it
23 reaches the mill?
24 A. The raw sugar is placed in a warehouse.
25 Q. Okay. How -- my question is: How is the
36
1 sugar processed at the mill?
2 A. I, believe it or not, haven't been inside a
3 sugar mill in 15 years. That's for the mill boys.
4 Generally, it's crushed and the juice is boiled off
5 to make a syrup and the syrup is spun through a set
6 of centrifugals to separate the molasses from the raw
7 sugar and that's a very, very simplified layman's
8 answer.
9 Q. Has sugar cane replaced growing vegetables
10 in the EAA to any extent?
11 A. I've never been involved in the vegetable
12 operations. I couldn't answer that because I've not
13 been involved in vegetable operations to say whether
14 any have been replaced or not.
15 Q. Do you know if there's more acres of sugar
16 grown in the EAA than there are of vegetables?
17 A. Yes, I would say that.
18 Q. Do you happen to know what percentage of
19 the Florida sugar industry is made up of U.S. Sugar?
20 A. Only on a sugar cane acreage basis. I
21 would say approximately one fourth.
22 Q. Do you know what soil subsidence is?
23 A. Subsidence.
24 Q. Is that how you pronounce it, subsidence?
25 A. Subsidence, yes, ma'am.
37
1 Q. What is that?
2 A. It's the compaction or depletion of a soil
3 over time.
4 Q. Does soil subsidence occur when one is
5 growing sugar over time?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. Why does that occur?
8 A. I am not a soil scientist. First of all,
9 they tell us that the organic matters are not true
10 soils, that it is, as it implies, organic matter and
11 it just subsides.
12 Q. So organic matter would be more likely to
13 compact then what is typically known as soil, is that
14 what you're saying? I'm confused.
15 A. I couldn't understand it. I mean I
16 couldn't answer that. It's my understanding that
17 subsidence or depletion can occur in all soils.
18 Q. Okay. Do you have any idea how much soil
19 is lost per year on U.S. Sugar's lands in the EAA due
20 to subsidence?
21 A. No, ma'am, I could not.
22 Q. Is it important to minimize subsidence?
23 A. Naturally, yes, ma'am.
24 Q. Why?
25 A. To maintain good depth of soils so that we
38
1 can produce crops for as long as possible.
2 Q. What is a good depth of soil to grow sugar
3 cane in?
4 A. That's again a very difficult question to
5 answer. It would depend upon the underlying rock
6 strata, how broken that strata might be.
7 MR. RUSSELL: Excuse me. I want to take a
8 quick break.
9 (Thereupon, a recess was taken.)
10 MS. LaPLANT: Back on the record.
11 BY MS. LaPLANT:
12 Q. Can you give me an average depth of soil in
13 which you grow sugar cane?
14 A. No, ma'am, I couldn't.
15 Q. Are you aware if sugar cane -- if the level
16 of soil has become shallower over the years as
17 opposed to when you first started growing sugar cane?
18 A. Yes. I'm aware in the organic areas.
19 Q. What do you mean by that?
20 A. It has become shallower.
21 Q. What do you mean in the organic areas?
22 A. In the muck soils. We refer to them as
23 soils even though the scientists say they are not.
24 What we call the muck soils --
25 Q. Uh huh.
39
1 A. -- yes, they are shallower from when I
2 first began.
3 Q. By how much?
4 A. That I couldn't answer.
5 Q. Who could give me that information?
6 A. Perhaps some people with the University of
7 Florida IFAS Soils Department at Everglades -- what
8 we call the Everglades Experiment Station in Belle
9 Glade.
10 Q. But you can't name a specific person?
11 A. No, I couldn't.
12 Q. Okay.
13 MS. LaPLANT: I'm going to mark as Exhibit
14 3 an excerpt from the March 13, 1992 Everglades
15 SWIM Plan.
16 (The document was marked
17 Exb. No. 3.)
18 BY MS. LaPLANT:
19 Q. You mentioned earlier in the deposition
20 that you had possibly read parts of certain SWIM
21 plans.
22 Have you read -- if you will take a look at
23 page 110. Have you read anything about the EAA
24 Regulatory Program that's mentioned near number 4 at
25 the bottom of page 110?
40
1 A. No, ma'am, I have not read that.
2 Q. Okay. Are you familiar with the EAA
3 Regulatory Program?
4 A. No, ma'am.
5 Q. I'd like to draw your attention to page 113
6 and 114. There's listed there nine BMPs and I'd like
7 to know if you've ever read these pages, 113, 114.
8 A. I've seen reference to that, but never read
9 those pages or read this exactly.
10 Q. Okay. When you say reference to that, do
11 you mean the nine BMPs?
12 A. Just to BMPs.
13 Q. Okay.
14 A. I wouldn't even testify that there were
15 nine of them.
16 Q. I'd like you to take a few minutes and just
17 read these five -- these nine BMPs.
18 A. Okay.
19 Q. You've read the nine BMPs?
20 A. Uh huh.
21 Q. I'd like to start with number 1, calibrated
22 soil test recommendations.
23 Do you understand that or know how that
24 process works?
25 A. Only vaguely.
41
1 Q. Okay. Can you describe your vague
2 understanding of it?
3 MR. RUSSELL: Are you talking about the
4 calibrated soil tests?
5 MS. LaPLANT: Uh huh, number 1.
6 THE WITNESS: You're talking about --
7 MR. RUSSELL: Just the test itself.
8 What a calibrated test -- soil test is, is
9 that the question?
10 MS. LaPLANT: Uh huh.
11 THE WITNESS: It is a system whereby soil
12 is sampled from individual fields and analyzed.
13 BY MS. LaPLANT:
14 Q. So how would the results of those analyses
15 turn into recommendations that could reduce
16 phosphorus losses that's mentioned in number 1?
17 A. The analysis would generate a
18 recommendation that would be based on what was found
19 in the field so that only any additional phosphorus,
20 if necessary, in the fertilizer would be all that
21 would be recommended.
22 Q. Do you know if this is being implemented in
23 the EAA at all?
24 A. I couldn't answer that within the EAA.
25 Only at U.S. Sugar.
42
1 Q. Okay. Let me reword it then.
2 Is this being utilized by U.S. Sugar?
3 A. To my understanding, yes.
4 Q. Okay. Can you think of any adverse effects
5 that this BMP would have on sugar crops or crop
6 yields?
7 A. I couldn't speak to that. I don't know
8 whether -- that's something the soil scientists would
9 have to answer.
10 Q. Number 2 is banding fertilizer. We talked
11 about that previously. You explained how that works.
12 And you also testified that that method is being used
13 by U.S. Sugar, is that correct?
14 A. Yes, ma'am.
15 Q. Okay. Can you think of any ways in which
16 this BMP might adversely affect sugar crop yields or
17 crops?
18 A. Again, the soil scientists that -- would
19 have to answer that.
20 Q. Has it been your experience that you have
21 personally noticed that banding has affected crops or
22 crop yields in a negative way?
23 A. As I mentioned earlier, my only fertilizer
24 experience with sugar cane is banding.
25 Q. And, in your experience, have you found
43
1 that banding has had a negative effect on sugar cane?
2 A. Well, again, with my only experience with
3 that, I have nothing else to compare it with.
4 Q. Number 3 is preventing fertilizer spills.
5 Does U.S. Sugar use this method, this BMP?
6 A. Yes, ma'am.
7 Q. Okay. And can you explain briefly how that
8 works?
9 A. Instruction and monitoring of -- by
10 supervisory staff of field practices; let's be
11 careful and don't spill it.
12 Q. Does preventing fertilizer spills save U.S.
13 Sugar money?
14 A. Obviously, wasted fertilizer is one a
15 monetary loss.
16 Q. Number 4, minimizing water table
17 fluctuations. Can you explain that BMP?
18 A. Basically, what that says to me is not over
19 pumping or over drainage.
20 Q. So keeping the water level at a certain
21 depth, is that correct?
22 A. That would be one way to express it.
23 Q. Can you think of any negative effects that
24 this BMP might have on crops or crop yields?
25 A. Yes. That could lead to some yield and --
44
1 crop and yield losses would be possible.
2 Q. Can you explain that further?
3 A. There could be situations in which the
4 water table is maintained at some level at which
5 you -- so as to minimize fluctuations. You've
6 maintained it at a higher level and should you suffer
7 sudden heavy rainfall events and/or floods as can
8 happen here, you could have water in the fields, the
9 fields saturated with water or flooded for longer
10 periods of time then you might have had in the past
11 had you been able to hold the water tables at a lower
12 level.
13 Q. And in what way would that adversely affect
14 the cane or the crop yield?
15 A. Again, that would vary on field to field.
16 Q. What do you base your opinion on number 4?
17 A. Field observations.
18 Q. So personal experience?
19 A. Yes, ma'am.
20 Q. Are you aware of any studies or research
21 that supplements what you've said or agree with what
22 you've said?
23 A. I'm not aware of any.
24 Q. Number 5 is retention of on-farm drainage.
25 Can you explain that BMP?
45
1 A. I think I may have mentioned something
2 along those lines when you asked about what happens
3 when we have excess water and I mentioned that you
4 could pump it within the farm and that's what that
5 means, that you would put it somewhere else within
6 the farm that may not have received as much rainfall.
7 Q. So this is being implemented by U.S. Sugar
8 presently?
9 A. Yes, ma'am.
10 Q. Can you think of any adverse effects of
11 this BMP on crops or crop yields?
12 A. In and of itself there may be farms that
13 have fallow fields that we've talked about. When you
14 have the fallow fields or rice production then you
15 obviously have a place to do this. There may be some
16 farms that do not have the ability at certain times
17 to do that simply because in their management they
18 don't have fallow fields available. So if you don't
19 have to do it, then there is no loss.
20 Q. Number 6, retention of vegetables field
21 drainage water in sugar cane or fallow lands. Could
22 you explain that?
23 A. Again, this occurs where vegetable
24 production and sugar cane production are occurring
25 within the same water basin.
46
1 Q. Uh huh.
2 A. And it's transferring vegetable water into
3 sugar cane or fallow fields as they talked about.
4 Q. Is that being implemented by U.S. Sugar?
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. And what, if any, concerns do you have
7 about this BMP and its effect on crops or crop
8 yields?
9 A. I would give the same answer as I gave
10 previously to number 5. When land is available to do
11 that, there is -- it can work. When land is not
12 available to carry out this practice, it could be
13 damaging.
14 Q. Number 7, aquatic cover crop for off-season
15 vegetable production and fallow rotation of sugar
16 cane. Could you explain that?
17 A. As they refer to aquatic cover crop such as
18 rice, if the rice fields -- production of rice
19 involves flooding and there may be times in which
20 excess water can be pumped onto rice fields rather
21 than pumped out of the basin. And in fallow
22 rotation, the same thing would apply. If the --
23 fallow means that, in this particular case, that
24 there is nothing growing on there, then those fields
25 could also be flooded.
47
1 Q. Would growing an aquatic cover crop have
2 any adverse effects on the soil that you know of?
3 A. I couldn't answer that one.
4 Q. Would growing an aquatic cover crop provide
5 you with an additional cash crop or as if you --
6 whereas if you left the field fallow you would not be
7 receiving any profits? Is that accurate?
8 A. All I know is rice is another controlled
9 and subsidized crop in this country and I don't think
10 there's very much money in it.
11 Q. What else besides rice might be grown as an
12 aquatic cover crop?
13 A. That's the only one I know of. I don't
14 know if there are others available.
15 Q. Number 8, on-farm retention ponds. Could
16 you explain that BMP?
17 A. Like it says, it's the setting aside of
18 some portion of the land area within a basin to
19 receive excess water before that water -- in place of
20 or before that water being pumped out of the basin,
21 meaning setting aside some acreage to accomplish
22 that.
23 Q. Is that action implemented by U.S. Sugar
24 currently?
25 A. Within the EAA?
48
1 Q. No. Just by U.S. Sugar in general.
2 A. We have some farms in which the conversion
3 of the land to sugar cane production has required
4 permitting or within the permitting system has
5 required that we build retention ponds.
6 Q. If you were not required to --
7 A. Excuse me. I would like to rephrase that
8 into: We've been required to build detention ponds.
9 Q. What's the difference?
10 A. Detention pond means that water is detained
11 for some period of time or some certain volume before
12 it passes through. Retention pond means that it
13 never leaves. It's retained.
14 Q. Number 9 is coordinated farm cropping
15 patterns. Can you explain that BMP?
16 A. This refers to what I mentioned in the
17 previous one. If land was available for movement of
18 water within the basin -- and this is saying that you
19 would have to change your farming patterns so that
20 land would be available either for fallow or for rice
21 fields so that you could maximize the previous BMPs
22 and you would have to change your farming pattern to
23 accomplish that.
24 Q. Is that being implemented by U.S. Sugar?
25 A. That becomes difficult to answer, because
49
1 we are implementing some of the others prior to that
2 that get involved in this. I would simply say that
3 we're growing more rice than we used to.
4 Q. Is U.S. Sugar currently using any BMPs that
5 are not mentioned in this list?
6 A. Yes, ma'am. Well, let me reconsider that
7 answer, please. Some of the BMPs are difficult to
8 fit within one of these nine and I would say that
9 there are -- yes, there's some BMPs that we're
10 practicing that are not listed here.
11 Q. Okay. Can you describe those one at a
12 time?
13 A. Repeat that.
14 Q. Can you describe those BMPs one at a time?
15 A. You'll find in documents provided a -- and
16 this may not include all since my part of the U.S.
17 Sugar's operation is only the Western Division. We
18 have what we call a parallel canal project and
19 sedimentation trap in a pump canal project, what is
20 called a cascade project. It's located in a
21 tributary canal. There's some BMPs being done by
22 other departments, so my list may not include them
23 all.
24 Q. Can you describe how the parallel canal
25 project works?
50
1 A. The object is to divert drainage water by
2 pumpage into a canal trap, if you will, pumping the
3 level in that canal to such a level as to create a
4 head differential between that trapped water and the
5 parallel drainage canal forcing the water to seep
6 from the trap through limerock back into the primary
7 pump canal before it's removed from the property.
8 Q. How is that different from the
9 sedimentation trap project that you next mentioned?
10 A. The sedimentation is that the pump canal
11 itself had been deepened and widened so the sediment
12 movement along the bottom of the canal would fall
13 into this hole and be trapped before being pumped.
14 Q. Then you mentioned the cascade project.
15 What is that?
16 A. That's an effort to pump drainage water
17 across an artificially created barrier of limerock
18 within the bottom of the canal and cascade that
19 drainage water across the limerock before it's
20 discharged out -- off the farm.
21 Q. Are these three BMPs described in the
22 documents that you've provided?
23 A. There are some design maps or just designs,
24 blueprints, if you will, of those projects in the
25 documents.
51
1 Q. And any other documentation besides the
2 maps?
3 A. It may be referred to as just simply the
4 projects referred to in some other memos there.
5 Q. Has U.S. Sugar submitted their own BMP
6 plan?
7 A. I don't know.
8 Q. Would you say that the BMPs that you just
9 described, the parallel canal project, the
10 sedimentation trap and the cascade project, do you
11 see those as more efficacious of moving phosphorus
12 than the nine BMPs that we talked about?
13 A. I wouldn't know.
14 Q. Are you familiar with what's called pump
15 BMPs?
16 A. Yes, ma'am.
17 Q. Can you explain those?
18 A. Pumping practice BMPs would refer to this
19 BMP listed here as number 4. It's an attempt to
20 minimize water table fluctuations.
21 Q. Okay. Are you familiar with Rule 40E-63?
22 A. Only that I have seen it in reference. I
23 have not read it.
24 Q. Now, previously you mentioned that you had
25 read, I believe, certain parts of certain SWIM plans.
52
1 From what you've read what's -- what do you think
2 generally of the SWIM Plan?
3 A. What I have read is very cursory. It
4 involves some period of time of drafts and so forth.
5 I don't know where the SWIM Plan is now, so I rather
6 not answer that.
7 Q. Okay. Do you think that implementation of
8 the SWIM Plan will have an adverse impact on U.S.
9 Sugar's crops or crop yields?
10 A. I honestly don't know.
11 MS. LaPLANT: Okay. I'd like to break for
12 just a minute.
13 (Thereupon, a recess was taken.)
14 MS. LaPLANT: Back on the record.
15 I have a few more questions for
16 Mr. Beardsley.
17 BY MS. LaPLANT:
18 Q. Regarding BMPs how would you define a BMP?
19 A. Well, it's a best management practice --
20 Q. Uh huh.
21 A. -- for whatever operation may be involved.
22 That -- it also is practical and economical, involved
23 in whatever operation it is that you're trying to
24 achieve this BMP in.
25 Q. Would U.S. Sugar use BMPs if they weren't
53
1 requested to do so?
2 A. It would depend on what the BMP was.
3 Q. In other words, are they used -- are the
4 BMPs used, as you said, in an economical sort of way
5 or in an environmental protection way?
6 A. The reference in which we're using BMPs
7 here, there are elements of both and, obviously,
8 that's the purpose of it, but at the same time, it
9 must be economical to be able to practice it at all
10 or there would be nothing.
11 Q. What do you think the purpose of the BMPs
12 are?
13 A. Reference to the ones we're talking about,
14 all of these that I have read this morning and the
15 ones that we're referring to are all involved with an
16 attempt to lessen phosphorus discharges in -- off
17 site.
18 Q. Is phosphorus an important component for
19 sugar cane growth?
20 A. Yes, ma'am.
21 Q. And why is that?
22 A. I just refer to an old soils chemistry
23 class in that the first three elements we're provided
24 by the good Lord necessary for good plant growth and,
25 the second most important of the three, phosphorus is
54
1 one of them.
2 Q. Is the fertilizer that U.S. Sugar uses
3 phosphorus based?
4 A. I don't understand that question.
5 Q. Is it phosphorus based? Is phosphorous a
6 major component of the fertilizer used by U.S. Sugar?
7 MR. RUSSELL: Would you explain what you
8 mean by major component there, counsel?
9 Just let her explain it.
10 BY MS. LaPLANT:
11 Q. Let me ask it this way. What -- out of
12 what organic or inorganic materials is your
13 fertilizer made up? What constitutes what your
14 fertilizer is?
15 A. We have a Research Department that
16 formulates or tells us what mixtures of fertilizer to
17 use as we discussed based on our soil sampling. The
18 ingredients are specified by them. I would say that
19 we have fields that don't get any phosphorus.
20 Q. Let me ask it this way. In the fertilizer
21 U.S. Sugar uses, there are ratios of each component,
22 phosphorus, nitrogen, is that correct? There's
23 certain ratios?
24 A. In all fertilizers --
25 Q. Right.
55
1 A. -- no matter who uses them.
2 Q. Right.
3 So my question --
4 A. There are.
5 Q. What -- generally, what ratio is used?
6 A. I would rather let one of them answer that
7 one.
8 Q. All right. We talked about pesticides
9 briefly earlier. What kind of insects would you be
10 trying to control with pesticide?
11 MR. RUSSELL: I'd like to make a comment.
12 There are a lot of questions that you might ask
13 about irrelevant matters and I would suggest and
14 object that the entire area of insects and
15 insect control is outside the scope of the SWIM
16 Plan and the SWIM Plan challenge and if you've
17 got some general questions, you may want to
18 proceed, but I would object that they are
19 irrelevant.
20 You can answer the question.
21 THE WITNESS: Would you repeat the question
22 again, please, ma'am.
23 BY MS. LaPLANT:
24 Q. What kind of insects are you trying to
25 control through the use of pesticides?
56
1 A. We don't control all insects. We don't
2 attempt to. But there are soil insects such as
3 wireworms and grubs and then there are what we might
4 refer to as the above ground insects which include
5 such things as aphids, mites, sugar cane borers.
6 Q. Do you have any idea about how many pounds
7 of fertilizer are used in U.S. Sugar's crops per
8 year?
9 A. No, ma'am.
10 Q. Same question for pesticides.
11 A. No, ma'am.
12 MS. LaPLANT: Okay. I have no further
13 questions for right now, but I believe the U.S.
14 does.
15 CROSS (Wayne Beardsley)
16 BY MR. FERRELL:
17 Q. Mr. Beardsley, I just have a few questions
18 today and, as we agreed off the record, we'll
19 probably take a break and continue tomorrow once
20 we've had an opportunity to review the documents that
21 you have produced.
22 Mr. Beardsley, if you'll take a look at
23 Exhibit Number 2. It states within Exhibit Number 2
24 the subject matter of your expected testimony is U.S.
25 Sugar agricultural practices, SWIM Plan and BMPs.
57
1 Other general areas of testimony may be added as
2 issues in the case develop.
3 Have you been requested to testify to
4 anything further than those three areas that are
5 listed there?
6 A. No, sir.
7 Q. Are the three areas that are listed, to
8 your knowledge, still those which you will be
9 testifying to?
10 A. To my knowledge.
11 Q. At the University of Florida when you
12 received your degree in agricultural economics, what
13 courses did you take to obtain that, in general
14 fashion, Mr. Beardsley?
15 A. That's been longer ago then I'd like to
16 think.
17 Q. We can limit that to agricultural
18 practices.
19 A. It was necessary for us to, at that time in
20 the curriculum in agriculture school, to take courses
21 in five other divisions within agriculture school and
22 I'm trying to remember those. Basically, those
23 courses were introductory in nature. I think I took
24 one in vegetable crops, citrus production, soil
25 science, animal production. May have been another
58
1 one. I don't remember on those, but for production
2 type practices.
3 Q. How long were you a Field Chemist prior to
4 becoming a Technical Assistant with U.S. Sugar?
5 A. I really don't remember. Let's add up the
6 years in the other jobs I gave you and subtract that
7 from 23 years and that will give us an idea.
8 Q. So approximately three years?
9 A. Something like that, yeah.
10 Q. Now, Mr. Beardsley, you stated that you are
11 the Superintendent -- I'm sorry -- the General
12 Manager for the Western Division of United States
13 Sugar Corporation. What area does that entail,
14 Mr. Beardsley?
15 A. Geographical area?
16 Q. Yes, sir.
17 A. Basically, from the -- what is known as the
18 North New River Canal or the -- which gets close to
19 Lake Okeechobee at the City of South Bay. Other than
20 one small parcel east of that North New River Canal,
21 everything of U.S. Sugar's cane production west of
22 there.
23 Q. Does that include what's commonly referred
24 to as the EAA?
25 A. Some of it is in the EAA.
59
1 Q. What portion is contained within the EAA?
2 A. Let's say approximately three quarters.
3 Q. I need to step back again for just a
4 moment.
5 Since attending the University of Florida
6 have you attended any other courses relating to
7 agricultural practices or attended any seminars?
8 A. Yes, sir. Over the years I've attended
9 grower seminars that have been sponsored by the IFAS
10 station there at Belle Glade.
11 Q. Approximately how many?
12 A. Probably an average of one a year for the
13 23 years I have been there, so something on that
14 order.
15 Q. Mr. Beardsley, in the 23 years you've
16 worked for U.S. Sugar has the practice of agriculture
17 changed greatly specifically as it relates to sugar
18 cane production?
19 A. You asked the practice of sugar cane
20 production. No, the basics have not changed greatly.
21 Q. And the basics are what you described
22 earlier in your testimony?
23 A. Uh huh.
24 Q. What soil conditions are necessary for the
25 growth of sugar cane?
60
1 A. I'm not sure what kind of conditions.
2 Climatic conditions?
3 Q. No. Just that -- I mean what kind of --
4 what kind of soil is necessary to produce the type of
5 sugar cane that you get?
6 A. It can vary widely. Sugar cane is grown
7 around the world on many, many, many types of soils.
8 Q. What climatic conditions are necessary for
9 the growth of sugar cane?
10 A. Adequate rainfall, an absence of prolonged
11 cold weather, good long daylight hours.
12 Q. In the EAA how much of the acreage that's
13 contained within the EAA is used for the growth of
14 sugar cane?
15 A. I couldn't answer that.
16 Q. You stated earlier, Mr. Beardsley, that the
17 amount of fertilizer that's used per acre can vary
18 from none to 1,300 pounds per acre. With respect to
19 the 1,300 pounds per acre, where are these acres
20 located?
21 A. As I mentioned, that's a very minor part of
22 some sandy soils that are located along the western
23 border of the EAA as I know it.
24 Q. In response to the notice of deposition
25 what documents have you provided to us, the State?
61
1 Can you list those for us?
2 A. I don't have a list. We'd have to sit here
3 and go through and I'd have to identify every one of
4 them. I didn't prepare a list.
5 Q. All of these documents that are before us
6 were from your water control files, correct?
7 A. That's correct. Basically. Basically.
8 Q. Those documents would contain the substance
9 of which your testimony will be at the hearing?
10 These would be the documents that you relied upon?
11 A. To my knowledge, yes.
12 Q. Mr. Beardsley, you stated earlier that if
13 rice is used as one of the rotating crops that when
14 sugar is placed thereafter that crop has been taken
15 that you -- there's no necessity for the use of
16 insecticide, is that correct?
17 A. At U.S. Sugar, that's correct.
18 Q. Why is that?
19 A. Because the flooding kills or sufficiently
20 lessens the population of the soil insects I referred
21 to to low enough levels that insecticide is not
22 required.
23 Q. You're the General Manager of the Western
24 Division of U.S. Sugar. I take it, then, there's an
25 Eastern Division.
62
1 A. That's correct.
2 Q. There's not a Northern or Southern
3 Division?
4 A. No, sir. Excuse me. There is reference to
5 a Southern Division that did exist at one time when
6 we were in cattle operations and part of our citrus
7 operation are still referred to as Southern Division,
8 but as far as for sugar cane production, basically
9 it's the Eastern and Western Divisions.
10 Q. And who is the General Manager for the
11 Eastern Division?
12 A. Mr. Ray Moore.
13 Q. Is a portion of the Eastern Division of
14 U.S. Sugar contained within the EAA? Is its
15 territory part of the EAA?
16 A. Yes.
17 MR. FERRELL: I have no further questions
18 until we have the opportunity to review these
19 documents at this time.
20 MR. RUSSELL: Let's go off the record for a
21 minute.
22 (Discussion held off the record.)
23 (Thereupon, a lunch recess was taken.)
63
1 REDIRECT (Wayne Beardsley)
2 BY MS. LaPLANT:
3 Q. I'd like to refer back to Exhibit 3. It
4 was an excerpt from the SWIM Plan, page 113, 114. I
5 know that you answered this earlier, Mr. Beardsley,
6 but can you refresh my memory as to which of the BMPs
7 out of these nine are being used now by U.S. Sugar?
8 A. I believe that I answered we were utilizing
9 number 1, number 2, number 3, number 4, number 7,
10 number 8 as required by permitting procedures with
11 South Florida Water Management, number 6 in a limited
12 way and I believe I said that number 9. That we were
13 utilizing some of the previous ones, that number 9 is
14 kind of a catch all and that we were growing more
15 rice than we used to.
16 Q. You said number 8 is being utilized as
17 required by permitting procedures by South Florida
18 Water Management District. Does that mean that you
19 had been previously utilizing these other BMPs prior
20 to being requested to utilize number 8 on your own?
21 A. I don't think that had anything to do with
22 it. As I referred to in the changing of cropping
23 patterns newly developed there is required that those
24 areas have detention ponds for growing of sugar cane
25 on them through the permitting process through South
64
1 Florida Water Management.
2 Q. Okay. I'm going to ask it this way. First
3 of all, when did you initially begin to utilize BMPs?
4 A. Well, if --
5 MR. RUSSELL: Counsel, the term, "BMP" has
6 been bandied about and you've even had
7 Mr. Beardsley define it, but when you say BMP,
8 would you either refer to the specific as
9 outlined in the SWIM Plan BMPs or BMPs in
10 general which just refer to ag practices,
11 actually, not necessarily as required or defined
12 by the SWIM Plan.
13 MS. LaPLANT: Right.
14 MR. RUSSELL: Thank you.
15 BY MS. LaPLANT:
16 Q. When did you first start to use BMPs in
17 general, not necessarily the ones talked about in the
18 SWIM Plan?
19 A. I can't answer that. As I mentioned in
20 earlier testimony, we've been banding fertilizer, for
21 instance, ever since I have been with U.S. Sugar.
22 Q. Why did you begin the process of banding
23 fertilizer?
24 A. I can't answer that. It was ongoing when I
25 got there.
65
1 Q. In determining which BMPs, which general --
2 generally which BMPs to use, how do you determine
3 which BMP to use? Are there studies that are done?
4 A. These -- some of these nine BMPs such as
5 the banding of fertilizer best management practice,
6 perhaps, have been in farming for a long, long time
7 and only recently have become the phrase of the day
8 in reference to water issues, perhaps.
9 Q. Okay.
10 A. I don't know that there's a definitive
11 choice to choosing what you do or don't do. I have
12 difficulty answering that.
13 Q. So you're saying that you have used the
14 BMPs that you've just identified prior to the SWIM
15 Plan coming out and that has been just an ordinary
16 agricultural practice that's been going on for years,
17 is that right?
18 MR. RUSSELL: You may want to clarify what
19 you mean by utilize, Mr. Beardsley --
20 THE WITNESS: For instance --
21 MR. RUSSELL: -- whether or not it's part
22 of your ongoing research or whether or not it's
23 something that's in actually widespread use at
24 this time.
25 THE WITNESS: Widespread use at this time
66
1 is, obviously, the banding of the fertilizer.
2 Calibrated soil test recommendations, prevention
3 of fertilizer spills, that's just good
4 housekeeping. And when you say SWIM Plan, I can
5 not, in my mind, pin down a certain date as of
6 such a date was a SWIM Plan, because there's
7 other SWIM plans, I believe. There have been a
8 few that were started, I guess, after the SWIM
9 Plan.
10 BY MS. LaPLANT:
11 Q. The SWIM Plan I'm referring to is the March
12 13, 1992 SWIM Plan.
13 A. If that's the date that you're referring
14 to, several of these were done before March 13, 1992.
15 Q. Okay. Do you feel that BMPs in general are
16 effective in reducing phosphorus?
17 A. I think I answered this morning I don't
18 know.
19 MR. RUSSELL: Want to take a break and have
20 that copied?
21 MS. LaPLANT: Doesn't need to be copied
22 right now. I will mark it as the next exhibit
23 and we'll copy it later.
24 (The document was marked
25 Exb. No. 4.)
67
1 MS. LaPLANT: This is being marked as
2 Exhibit 4, United States Sugar Corporation
3 Implementation of a Strategy to Revitalize the
4 Everglades and Preserve Farming.
5 BY MS. LaPLANT:
6 Q. Mr. Beardsley, have you seen this document?
7 A. Yes, ma'am.
8 Q. Did you produce this document to us?
9 A. No, I did not.
10 Q. Who produced it?
11 A. I am not sure.
12 Q. Were you involved in drafting this --
13 A. No.
14 Q. -- putting this together?
15 A. No.
16 Q. Have you looked at it?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. What basically, in general, was the
19 strategy that that document refers to?
20 A. I'd have to reread it. I have not read
21 that in some time. It was just handed to me sometime
22 ago. I put it in the file. It was a strategy to
23 reduce phosphorus discharge.
24 Q. Who gave it to you?
25 A. I can't even recall.
68
1 Q. Okay. Do you have any feelings one way or
2 the other about what's in this document?
3 A. In what sense?
4 Q. Do you remember enough of what's in it to
5 have an opinion on the strategy therein?
6 A. No, I don't.
7 Q. I want to get back to fertilizer for a
8 second.
9 Specifically, what types of fertilizer are
10 used to fertilize sugar cane on your farms?
11 A. What do you mean by type?
12 Q. I mean names of the fertilizers.
13 A. The names of the fertilizers are by a
14 numbered name that's a U.S. Sugar number for a
15 mixture and they are just numbered names.
16 Q. Numbered in -- what do you mean by
17 numbered?
18 A. Two digit or three digit number.
19 Q. Just arbitrarily attached to the
20 fertilizer?
21 A. I don't know how they were assigned.
22 Q. Are there different concentrations of
23 fertilizer used in different sugar fields or
24 different mixtures of fertilizers?
25 A. Yes.
69
1 Q. Okay. And in what way would those mixtures
2 differ from each other?
3 A. They would differ by the ingredients in the
4 mixture.
5 Q. And, specifically, what ingredients might
6 differ? What might be in one bag of fertilizer
7 that's not in another?
8 A. We don't handle bags of fertilizer. Any
9 particular ingredient may or may not be in a mixture.
10 Q. Okay. What ingredients are you talking
11 about?
12 A. Nitrogen, phosphorus, potash.
13 Q. Is that it basically? Are there other
14 ingredients?
15 A. There are other ingredients in some
16 fertilizers. I could not give you a definitive list
17 of all of them.
18 Q. Uh huh. Okay. Now, what would determine
19 which particular numbered fertilizer you would use on
20 any given cane field?
21 A. The recommendation.
22 Q. Of who?
23 A. Of our Research Department.
24 Q. Okay. Is there anyone that you can name
25 that would have that information?
70
1 A. Mr. Henry Andreis is the head of our
2 Research Department.
3 Q. And does he have assistants helping him or
4 is he the sole person?
5 A. There are others involved in the Soils
6 Department.
7 Q. Do you know who they are?
8 A. Yes, ma'am.
9 Q. Can you name them?
10 A. Dr. McCray and he's the head of the Soils
11 Department within the Research Department.
12 Q. Anyone else?
13 A. There's some other staff members.
14 Mr. Bruce Hutcheson and there have been some changes
15 there. And the others I don't know.
16 Q. Okay. Has the way in which you fertilize
17 sugar cane changed since you first began working for
18 U.S. Sugar as compared to presently?
19 A. Repeat that again.
20 Q. Has the way in which you apply fertilizer
21 changed over the years from when you began working at
22 U.S. Sugar to right now?
23 A. For applying fertilizer, no.
24 Q. For applying fertilizer?
25 A. No.
71
1 Q. What about the amounts of fertilizer
2 applied?
3 A. I couldn't speak to that.
4 Q. What about the types of fertilizer applied?
5 A. I couldn't speak to that either.
6 Q. Would the application or the amount of
7 fertilizer applied, would that change due to soil
8 subsidence?
9 A. I would have no knowledge of that. I
10 wouldn't know.
11 Q. What's the purpose of fertilizing sugar
12 cane?
13 A. To generate optimum plant growth and
14 consequent sugar production in an economical way.
15 Q. Would you say that there's any one given
16 constituent of any fertilizer mixture that is more
17 efficacious at promoting growth then another
18 constituent?
19 A. I couldn't answer that.
20 Q. Okay. Have you produced the documents
21 related to the application of fertilizer today in
22 your response to our request?
23 A. No, I have not. But that's what we had
24 discussed.
25 Q. Just for the record, what will you be
72
1 producing tomorrow?
2 A. The application -- fertilizer application
3 field records for the last two growing seasons.
4 Q. Last two growing seasons.
5 MR. FERRELL: Off the record for a moment.
6 (Discussion held off the record.)
7 MS. LaPLANT: I don't have any additional
8 questions unless you have some more.
9 MR. FERRELL: I just have a few.
10 RECROSS (Wayne Beardsley)
11 BY MR. FERRELL:
12 Q. Mr. Beardsley, with respect to Exhibit 4 I
13 believe you stated that it was put together for the
14 purpose of developing a strategy that would reduce
15 phosphorus within this whole EAA area and that
16 relates -- when we're talking about BMPs, we're
17 talking about BMPs relating to phosphorus reduction,
18 is that correct?
19 A. Yes, sir.
20 Q. Mr. Beardsley, within the documents that
21 you've produced for this deposition today, are there
22 documents that relate to the reduction of phosphorus
23 through best management practices?
24 A. There are documents that relate to an
25 attempt to reduce phosphorus through various best
73
1 management practices.
2 Q. Is one of your responsibilities as the
3 General Manager of the Western Division of U.S. Sugar
4 to oversee and develop BMPs for the reduction of
5 phosphorus?
6 A. When called upon to do so in specific -- on
7 specific issues to try to develop something or to
8 think of something, yes, that has been my assignment.
9 Q. Prior to the development of the March 12 --
10 March 13, 1992 SWIM Plan, the SWIM Plan that we've
11 been discussing a little bit today, was there a focus
12 on the reduction of phosphorus through best
13 management practices?
14 A. I have trouble with the word, "focus."
15 Q. I can restate the question if you would
16 like.
17 A. Restate it.
18 Q. Prior to 1992 was there an attempt by
19 U.S. Sugar to reduce the amount of phosphorus that
20 was pumped into the primary canal system?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. And what specific phosphorus reducing BMPs
23 were implemented to do just that?
24 A. There was some pumping practice referred to
25 in that document as minimum water table fluctuation
74
1 practices attempted. As I discussed through the
2 various nine there, there was some of that that
3 was -- that we were already doing. I iterated some
4 best management practice projects earlier that have
5 been implemented. Of those three I discussed,
6 however, I do not believe those three were completed
7 prior to March of 1992. There was some others
8 perhaps that I would have no specific knowledge of.
9 Q. For purposes of discharging excess water or
10 moving excess water to you had stated that earlier in
11 the deposition that if there's an excess amount of
12 water it's either pumped into the primary canal
13 system or moved to other areas that need the water
14 table level increased. Is there -- are those the
15 only two ways that water from sugar cane fields leave
16 the fields?
17 MR. RUSSELL: I don't understand the
18 question.
19 If you understand the question, go ahead
20 and answer it.
21 BY MR. FERRELL:
22 Q. You can answer it.
23 A. Well, they have, which we have no control,
24 which would be evapotranspiration, evaporation and
25 seepage.
75
1 Q. Seepage meaning?
2 A. Seepage off the perimeters of our property
3 into adjacent -- for instance, should the water table
4 in the adjacent area be lower than our water table,
5 it will seep away from us. The reverse -- if the
6 reverse is true, it will seep onto us, underground
7 seepage.
8 Q. The three additional BMPs that you had
9 discussed earlier, the parallel canal project, the
10 sedimentation trap project, the cascade project, do
11 those BMPs simply relate to the reduction of
12 phosphorus or are they just best management practices
13 in general?
14 A. We don't know enough about them for me to
15 answer that question yet.
16 Q. I just have one more question for today. I
17 had asked earlier what was the ideal composition of
18 soil for sugar cane. I don't believe I received an
19 answer. We got off on the climatic answer to that.
20 But as far as -- what makes the EAA such a good place
21 to grow sugar cane?
22 A. Well, I answered I think by saying there
23 were soils all over the world on which sugar cane is
24 grown and I would hazard a guess that none of them
25 are ideal. However, the Everglades, what makes it
76
1 unique for sugar cane production is a highly organic
2 soil which consequently is very rich in nitrogen and
3 the South Florida area, which the Everglades is
4 obviously a part, gets adequate rainfall. It's the
5 classic farmers' problem, it just doesn't come at the
6 right time necessarily and we have adequate
7 temperatures; a minimum of cold or cold weather and
8 we have adequate daylight length here in the summer
9 to generate good plant growth, so all of those
10 factors fit together to make the Everglades a rather
11 unique place conducive for agricultural crops.
12 MR. FERRELL: Do you have anything further?
13 REDIRECT (Wayne Beardsley)
14 BY MS. LaPLANT:
15 Q. Just one question. Can you define
16 evapotranspiration?
17 A. It would be -- my layman's interpretation
18 of that is loss of water, either surface water or
19 soil born water, through the transpiration growth of
20 the plant and natural evaporation and sunlight
21 combined.
22 MS. LaPLANT: I have no further questions.
23 MR. FERRELL: We'll reconvene tomorrow at 9
24 a.m.
25 MR. RUSSELL: Is that good for you?
77
1 THE WITNESS: A little later perhaps.
2 MR. RUSSELL: He's traveling from
3 Clewiston.
4 THE WITNESS: I have to get back and see if
5 I can get these documents up. I may need a
6 little time in the morning before I leave. I
7 have to come some 60 miles.
8 MR. RUSSELL: What time would be good for
9 you?
10 THE WITNESS: 10 o'clock.
11 MR. RUSSELL: We'll be glad to add an hour
12 at the end of the day since our normal day is
13 over, what is it, 9:00 to 5:00?
14 MR. FERRELL: Right.
15 MS. LaPLANT: Is 10 o'clock okay with you?
16 MR. FERRELL: 10:00 is fine. We can
17 shorten the lunch time break.
18 MR. RUSSELL: Okay. That will be fine.
19 (Recess for the day.)
78
1 (Continuation of Beardsley deposition on
2 7-8-93 from 9:25 a.m. - 11:55 a.m.)
3 MS. LaPLANT: This would be Exhibit 5.
4 (The document was marked
5 Exb. No. 5.)
6 CONTINUED REDIRECT (Wayne Beardsley)
7 BY MS. LaPLANT:
8 Q. Mr. Beardsley, can you identify what this
9 document is?
10 A. It's a list of pumping practices by farm or
11 water control basin.
12 Q. Okay. What's the date on that?
13 A. The one I have is July the 22, 1992.
14 Q. Who would be responsible for compiling
15 something like this?
16 A. Well, I compiled it.
17 Q. What exactly is being pumped here and where
18 from and to?
19 A. We're pumping water.
20 Q. From where?
21 A. Pumping from the farm designated as the
22 discharge location but it can be pumped to any number
23 of places because we have so many farms.
24 Q. Does this illustrate where it's being
25 pumped to?
79
1 A. No, it does not.
2 Q. Where would discharges like this be pumped
3 to?
4 A. Like this -- you mean each one of these
5 or --
6 Q. Well, let's start with the first one,
7 Benbow -- I can't read that -- Hicpochee.
8 A. Hicpochee.
9 Q. Where would that go to?
10 A. This particular one is an internal
11 discharge within a 298 district.
12 Q. Okay. Can you define a what a 298 district
13 is?
14 A. 298 is a -- I'm not sure I can define that
15 in legal terms and that is a law that sets up taxing
16 districts for various uses so I just leave it at
17 that.
18 Q. Okay. Once this water, this discharge goes
19 into the 298 what happens to it?
20 A. That decision -- what happens with the
21 water within the 298 district is up to the managers
22 of that district -- of each district.
23 Q. Do you personally know what happens to this
24 water?
25 A. Sometimes it's retained.
80
1 Yes, I do.
2 Q. What happens to it?
3 A. Sometimes it's retained within that
4 district and sometimes it's discharged.
5 Q. To where?
6 MR. RUSSELL: We're still on the Benbow?
7 MS. LaPLANT: Uh huh.
8 THE WITNESS: The first listing that
9 particular discharge would be into what is known
10 locally as Lake Hicpochee.
11 BY MS. LaPLANT:
12 Q. And does it remain there?
13 A. No. That flows into the Caloosahatchee
14 River.
15 Q. And where does that go?
16 A. It goes west to the Gulf of Mexico.
17 Q. Okay. And would the second and third
18 discharge locations -- well, let's just stick with
19 the second. Would the second discharge, would that
20 have a similar route or would that be different?
21 MR. RUSSELL: You're on Section 17, Benbow
22 Section 17?
23 MS. LaPLANT: Uh huh.
24 MR. RUSSELL: Okay.
25 THE WITNESS: It could go two different
81
1 directions, but it ultimately ends up in the
2 same place.
3 BY MS. LaPLANT:
4 Q. Okay. Let's turn to the second page of
5 this document. The first discharge location
6 mentioned there is Townsite Lateral 8E?
7 A. Uh huh.
8 Q. Where would that discharge flow to?
9 A. Again, it flows into the 298 district known
10 as the Sugar Land Drainage District.
11 Q. What happens to it there?
12 A. Again, it can either be retained or
13 discharged by the District.
14 Q. And do you know where the District would
15 discharge it to?
16 A. Discharges it into the S-4 -- what is known
17 locally as the S-4 basin.
18 Q. And what happens to it in the S-4 basin?
19 A. I have no control over that. There's
20 several things that can happen to it and I would
21 hesitate to answer because I may not be able to
22 answer all of the possibilities.
23 Q. Okay. Generally, as we're looking through
24 this document, there's several -- many discharge
25 locations noted and can you ascertain where most of
82
1 these discharges are going to or do they all go to
2 different places?
3 A. I can ascertain where our discharge, where
4 it goes.
5 Q. Uh huh.
6 A. From there I cannot answer all the
7 possibilities which are not under my control.
8 Q. Right.
9 So you're saying that most of these
10 discharges flow into the 298 district and then after
11 that you would only have to speculate, is that right?
12 A. Of ones I answered they flow into 298,
13 within a 298 district.
14 Q. Okay. And the Townsite discharges as well?
15 A. The one we mentioned, yes.
16 Q. What about Townsite (1) Lateral 9E?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. And the next one, Lateral 10E?
19 A. Yes.
20 Q. And Townsite Southline?
21 A. No.
22 Q. Where does that go?
23 A. It goes into a facility known as the
24 Industrial Canal.
25 Q. Where is that located?
83
1 A. It's located along the east side of the
2 City of Clewiston and goes south for several miles.
3 Q. And what happens to it after it's there?
4 A. Again, there's several possibilities. It
5 is not under my control.
6 Q. What are those possibilities?
7 A. It can flow into -- again, into the S-4
8 basin or it can flow into Lake Okeechobee.
9 Q. Okay. If it were to flow into Lake
10 Okeechobee would it remain there?
11 A. I would have no knowledge, no control. I
12 couldn't say.
13 Q. Um, these discharges that are listed in
14 this document, are these pumping practice BMPs?
15 A. They can be considered to be BMPs.
16 Q. Are they pump BMPs?
17 A. That's what we would know them as.
18 Q. Is this a practice that's utilized by
19 U.S. Sugar extensively?
20 A. This is a practice we're working on.
21 Q. How long have you been working on it?
22 A. Certainly since 1989 and perhaps late 1988.
23 Q. Why were these BMPs developed?
24 A. I was instructed to develop some BMPs. The
25 why would have to be answered by somebody else.
84
1 Q. What's the purpose of these BMPs?
2 A. Well, as it states on it, for our purposes,
3 pumping practices for phosphorus reduction.
4 Q. How would these BMPs reduce phosphorus?
5 A. That I can't answer.
6 Q. Were you the only person responsible for
7 developing these BMPs?
8 A. No, ma'am.
9 Q. Who did you work with?
10 A. Mr. Frank Polhill.
11 Q. What's his title?
12 A. He's Vice President of Agriculture
13 Department. Senior Vice President, excuse me.
14 Q. Did he approach you to develop these?
15 A. Yes, ma'am.
16 Q. And what did he say when he approached you,
17 develop a BMP?
18 A. I don't believe so.
19 Q. Do you remember how he approached you
20 regarding developing these BMPs?
21 A. Yes, ma'am.
22 Q. Ask you to elaborate.
23 A. The conversation was sometime ago. The
24 gist of it was let's see what we can do to come up
25 with some ideas to reduce pumping.
85
1 Q. Had you ever developed any BMPs prior to
2 this?
3 A. Again, the haziness of the line between
4 what is a BMP and just some good common sense farming
5 practices gets -- is pretty hazy. Over the years
6 I've done some things, but I didn't call them a BMP.
7 Q. All right. Let me rephrase the question.
8 Did you ever develop any pump BMPs prior to
9 this?
10 MR. RUSSELL: Are we still talking about
11 BMPs for reducing phosphorus? Or the ambiguity
12 comes in the term, "BMP."
13 MS. LaPLANT: Well, I use the term, "pump
14 BMP" which is what these are on this document.
15 I assumed we were still talking about them.
16 MR. RUSSELL: Is it for reducing phosphorus
17 or is it like he's already testified, just good
18 management?
19 MS. LaPLANT: That's why I rephrased the
20 question to be clear it was a pump BMP
21 specifically to reduce phosphorus.
22 MR. RUSSELL: Okay. To reduce phosphorus,
23 then.
24 THE WITNESS: No.
25 BY MS. LaPLANT:
86
1 Q. I don't remember the question. What are
2 you responding "no" to?
3 You have not developed any prior to this?
4 A. For the purposes of reducing phosphorus,
5 no.
6 Q. Okay. In what way technically? I don't
7 understand how these pumping practices reduce
8 phosphorus. Could you explain that?
9 A. I don't know that they do.
10 Q. Well, if they did, how would they? What is
11 the process involved? What's the theory behind how
12 these reduce phosphorus?
13 A. The theory was to reduce pumping.
14 Q. Reduce pumping from where?
15 A. From each of these basins.
16 Q. Reduce the pumping to where?
17 A. To whichever outside off site system that
18 received from each of these locations.
19 Q. So does that mean -- for instance, would
20 the Benbow discharge location, that you would be
21 keeping more water on that location and allowing less
22 to go off, is that correct?
23 A. At times.
24 Q. And that would increase the phosphorus on
25 the Benbow location but decrease it in other areas?
87
1 A. I can't answer that.
2 Q. Are these pump BMPs used more than the ones
3 we discussed yesterday, the nine BMPs enumerated in
4 the SWIM Plan?
5 A. No.
6 Q. No? Are they used about the same amount?
7 A. I don't understand that.
8 One of the BMPs listed yesterday was
9 banding fertilizer and we've been doing that a long
10 time.
11 Q. How many different farms are the pump BMPs
12 used on?
13 A. I can only answer in the Western Division.
14 All of them less three.
15 Q. Which is what number?
16 A. All of those listed in this.
17 Q. Okay. There's the Benbow Farm, Townsite
18 farm, Mott Farm, Ritta Farm, Miami Locks Farm, South
19 Shore Farm. That's six farms. You said minus which
20 ones?
21 A. There are three farms which currently, this
22 BMP -- this BMP schedule does not apply to.
23 Q. Uh huh.
24 A. Currently it would be listed as the
25 Wetherald 1 Farm, the Mott 1 Farm and the two Currin
88
1 Land locations and the Vaughn Farm at the two Florida
2 Lettuce locations.
3 Q. Why are the BMPs not utilized at those
4 farms?
5 A. I was instructed to not use those three
6 areas under this system.
7 Q. Do you know why?
8 A. They were to be operated as the old system
9 and the terminology expressed to me was they were to
10 be baseline areas.
11 Q. What does that mean?
12 A. That I am not -- I am not sure of.
13 Q. What is the old system?
14 A. The old pumping practices of running the
15 pumps whenever you desired for as long as you
16 desired.
17 Q. So these pumping practices only allow water
18 to be pumped or discharged from the farms at certain
19 times, is that correct?
20 A. Not certain chronological times.
21 Q. Then what type of times other than
22 chronological?
23 A. Times when these conditions have been met.
24 Q. Can you explain what you mean by when the
25 conditions have been met?
89
1 A. The conditions as listed in the schedules.
2 Q. Are you talking about the water levels?
3 A. Yes, ma'am.
4 Q. And can you explain -- are you saying that
5 you can only pump water when the water level is at a
6 certain stage?
7 A. That's correct.
8 Q. And then you have to stop pumping when it
9 reaches another stage?
10 A. That's correct.
11 Q. And then how do you ascertain these levels?
12 A. They are listed in the schedule.
13 Q. How are they determined? How are they
14 formulated? How do you decide that you're going to
15 pump down a foot of water and stop pumping?
16 A. I didn't decide that.
17 Q. Who did?
18 A. I don't know.
19 Q. So when you say you developed this BMP,
20 what exactly did you develop on this schedule?
21 A. Again, at Mr. Polhill's request I developed
22 the specific triggers (sic) points for each of these
23 locations.
24 Q. What's a trigger point?
25 A. The specific level at which pumping can be
90
1 initiated.
2 Q. How do you determine what level pumping can
3 be initiated at?
4 A. Practical experience.
5 Q. Well, what determines it? Does it have to
6 do with at what stage the sugar cane is in its
7 maturity or what factors are involved?
8 A. The initiation of pumping a level was so as
9 to prevent flooding.
10 Q. Okay. All right.
11 MS. LaPLANT: I'm going to introduce this
12 as Exhibit 6.
13 (The document was marked
14 Exb. No. 6.)
15 THE WITNESS: I guess I left some of this.
16 I thought I brought it all.
17 BY MS. LaPLANT:
18 Q. Can you identify this document?
19 A. This document was given to me by
20 representatives of Hutcheon Engineering.
21 Q. Why was it given to you?
22 A. They are under contract with our company to
23 do work for us and it they presented it to us.
24 Q. What do you mean by work?
25 A. That -- I'm not sure of what it is that
91
1 they are doing.
2 Q. It says -- there's some writing in the
3 upper right-hand corner of the document. Is that
4 your writing?
5 A. Yes, ma'am.
6 Q. It says, "Received April 29, 1992.
7 Presented to SAGE Committee South Florida Water
8 Management District."
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. Do you know why this was presented to the
11 SAGE Committee?
12 A. No.
13 Q. Did you attend the SAGE meeting at which
14 this was presented?
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. Was this document discussed at the meeting?
17 A. It was presented.
18 Q. Was it presented by the Hutcheon
19 Engineering that you mentioned before?
20 A. As I recall.
21 Q. Why did you attend the SAGE meeting?
22 A. I gave a presentation.
23 Q. What did you do your presentation on?
24 A. The background explanation of a study of
25 our Mott 1 pump discharge, practicing a pumping
92
1 reduction practice versus Wetherald 1 location which
2 practice continued to pump the old way as we
3 discussed.
4 Q. Okay. And were you advocating one way over
5 the other?
6 A. No, ma'am.
7 Q. It was just a factual presentation, the
8 different pumping regimes, is that correct?
9 A. We didn't discuss pumping regimes or I
10 didn't present that.
11 Q. Okay. I'd like you to turn to the next
12 page on this document which is page 7. The first
13 sentence reads: "Beginning one week prior to
14 scheduled harvesting operations the main canal water
15 table may be lowered to the farm control elevation."
16 What is farm control elevation?
17 A. That was written by Hutcheon Engineering.
18 MR. RUSSELL: Just answer.
19 BY MS. LaPLANT:
20 Q. Do you know what farm control elevation is?
21 A. It is the lowest level under this pumping
22 practice during certain conditions to which the main
23 canal can be lowered.
24 Q. It reads here, "The main canal water
25 table." Is that what you're referring to?
93
1 A. Yes, ma'am.
2 Q. Okay. In the next paragraph first sentence
3 reads, "In order to control muck fires or to provide
4 freeze protection it may become necessary to
5 temporarily raise the water table to or slightly
6 above the peak irrigation level or 30 inches above
7 farm control level."
8 MR. RUSSELL: That's "elevation," counsel.
9 Last word, "farm control elevation."
10 MS. LaPLANT: Oh. What did I say?
11 MR. RUSSELL: I believe you said "level."
12 BY MS. LaPLANT:
13 Q. Okay. Elevation.
14 Is peak irrigation level 30 inches above
15 farm control level?
16 MR. RUSSELL: Answer that if you know.
17 BY MS. LaPLANT:
18 Q. Maybe it would help you if I asked you to
19 define "peak irrigation level" first. What does that
20 phrase mean?
21