1 DIVISION OF ADMINISTRATIVE HEARINGS

DEPARTMENT OF ADMINISTRATION, STATE OF FLORIDA

CASE NOS. 92-3038

3 92-3039

92-3040

SUGAR CANE GROWERS COOPERATIVE OF )

5 FLORIDA, et. al., )

)

6 Petitioners, )

)

7 vs. )

)

8 SOUTH FLORIDA WATER MANAGEMENT )

DISTRICT, )

9 )

Respondent. )

10 )

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, et. al., )

11 )

Intervenors. )

14 99 Northeast 4th Street

Miami, Florida

15 April 7, 1994

9:20 a.m. - 12:02 p.m.

16 12:54 p.m. - 4:38 p.m.

19 Deposition of Doctor Frank Jay Coale

21 Taken before Stan Seplin, Certified Shorthand

22 Reporter and Notary Public in and for the State of

23 Florida at Large, pursuant to Notice of Taking

24 Deposition filed in the above cause.

25 - - - - - - -

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 APPEARANCES:

ON BEHALF OF THE PETITIONERS:

Earl, Blank, Kavanaugh & Stotts, P.A.

5 Two South Biscayne Boulevard, Suite 3636

Miami, Florida 33131

6 BY: Jonathan Gaines, Esq.

7 ON BEHALF OF THE UNITED STATES:

8 United States Department of Justice

Environmental and Natural Resources Division

9 601 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20004

10 BY: Stephen M. MacFarlane, Esq.

12 - - - - - - -

13 I N D E X

14 WITNESS DIRECT CROSS REDIRECT RECROSS

Dr. F.J. Coale 3 --

GOVERNMENT'S EXHIBITS

Coale Exhibit 1 - Page 4

17 Coale Exhibit 2 - Page 8

Coale Exhibit 3 - Page 36

18 Coale Exhibit 4 - Page 42

Coale Exhibit 5 - Page 47

19 Coale Exhibit 6 - Page 55

Coale Exhibits 7,8,9 - Page 91

20 Coale Exhibits 10 and 11 - Page 159

Coale Exhibit 12 - Page 168

21 Coale Exhibit 13 - Page 203

Coale Exhibit 14 - Page 228

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 Thereupon:

2 Doctor Frank Jay Coale,

3 was called as a witness by the United States, and

4 after being first duly sworn, was examined and

5 testified under oath as follows:

6 DIRECT EXAMINATION

7 BY MR. MACFARLANE:

8 Q. State your name, please.

9 A. Frank Coale.

10 Q. Mr. Coale, would you give us your

11 address, please.

12 A. 14428 Bradshaw Drive, Silver Spring,

13 Maryland.

14 MR. GAINES: Incidently, it's Doctor

15 Coale.

16 MR. MACFARLANE: I'm sorry. I apologize.

17 THE WITNESS: I answer to both, and other

18 things.

19 BY MR. MACFARLANE:

20 Q. Doctor Coale, how are you employed?

21 A. I'm an associate professor at the

22 University of Maryland.

23 Q. Well, good mornng. My name is Steve

24 MacFarlane. I'm with the Department of Justice, and

25 one of the attorneys representing the federal

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 intervenors in the present SWIM Plan challenge,

2 which you were listed as a witness, and the purpose

3 of this deposition today is to learn what testimony

4 you plan to give at the final hearing, if there is

5 to be a final hearing, and let me just ask you, have

6 you ever been deposed before?

7 A. No, I haven't.

8 Q. You should tell me if I ask questions

9 that are unclear to you, and-- I'm sure your lawyer

10 will object if it's appropriate to do so.

11 Unless he instructs you not to answer,

12 you should-- if you possibly can, you should go

13 ahead and answer my question, if you understand it,

14 but please don't hesitate to ask me to rephrase or

15 make myself clear, if that's necessary.

16 A. All right.

17 Q. Also, if you need to take a break at any

18 time, please don't hesitate to give a holler, and

19 we'll do that.

20 A. I will.

21 MR. MACFARLANE: Mark this as an exhibit.

22 (The document referred to

23 was thereupon marked as

24 Coale Exhibit Number

25 One for Identification,

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 a copy of which is attached

2 hereto.)

3 BY MR. MACFARLANE:

4 Q. Doctor Coale, I'm handing you what's

5 been marked as Coale Exhibit One, and I'll represent

6 that this is a supplemental list of witnesses, dated

7 January 20, 1994.

8 Would you please turn to the second page

9 and look at number three (indicating).

10 A. (Witness complies.)

11 Q. Let me ask you, have you seen this done

12 before?

13 A. No, I don't believe I have.

14 Q. Doctor Coale, you're listed as a witness

15 for the Florida Sugar Cane League and United States

16 Sugar in this proceeding.

17 Do you anticipate giving testimony at

18 the final SWIM Plan challenge?

19 A. I'm not quite sure what all these

20 procedures are entitled, but from what I hear,

21 there's a hearing proposed to come up--

22 MR. GAINES: Yes. For the record, it is

23 anticipated that Doctor Coale will provide testimony

24 at the final hearing, in areas listed on the witness

25 disclosure.

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 BY MR. MACFARLANE:

2 Q. Let's look to the next page, then, page

3 three (indicating).

4 A. Yes.

5 Q. The subject matter of your expected

6 testimony is listed as agricultural BMPs and

7 alternatives.

8 Is that consistent with your

9 understanding, of the areas which you're-- I'm not

10 sure what alternatives means, but primarily, my area

11 is agricultural BMPs.

12 Q. The alternatives have been used in a

13 number of different systems in this litigation.

14 Do you intend to give testimony about

15 the agricultural BMPs-- let me rephrase it. The

16 on-farm BMPs that are listed in the SWIM Plan?

17 A. Yes.

18 Q. Do you anticipate giving testimony about

19 other on-farm BMPs that are not in the SWIM Plan?

20 A. That's correct, yes.

21 Q. Do you anticipate giving testimony on

22 alternative treatment technologies, that is to say,

23 alternatives to storage water treatment areas, or

24 STAs?

25 A. No. I--

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 MR. GAINES: There's no secret what his

2 testimony is about, but the word alternatives is a

3 little fuzzy, especially in this case.

4 He's not going to give testimony on

5 areas, such as direct filtration, chemical

6 treatment, so forth.

7 MR. BARTELL: That is what--

8 MR. GAINES: How much, there are-- I

9 don't know if they follow the rubric of

10 alternatives, but however, some sedimentation

11 practices-- I don't know if they fall under that

12 label or not. It's not strictly on the on-farm BMP

13 plan, but just so it's clear--

14 MR. MACFARLANE: Sure. I think I

15 understand.

16 Another one of your witnesses, John

17 David Stewart, distinguished between alternative

18 BMPs and alternative STAs.

19 BY MR. MACFARLANE:

20 Q. Doctor Coale, you would anticipate

21 giving testimony about on-farm practices to reduce

22 phosphorus; is that correct?

23 A. Yes.

24 Q. Now, I note the date of Exhibit One is

25 January 20, 1994 (indicating).

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 Doctor Coale, are you presently under

2 contract with either the Florida Sugar Cane League

3 or the law firm of Earl, Blank, Kavanaugh and

4 Stotts?

5 A. I have an agreement with Earl, Blank,

6 Kavanaugh and Stotts to serve as a consultant.

7 Q. Is that a written agreement?

8 A. Yes.

9 Q. When did you enter into that agreement?

10 A. The exact date, I can't tell you.

11 It was about mid January of this year.

12 Q. Is that with the firm of Earl, Blank?

13 A. Kavanaugh and Stotts, yes.

14 Q. Doctor Coale, have you ever done

15 consulting work for the sugar cane industry in South

16 Florida before?

17 A. No.

18 Q. But you've done research down in South

19 Florida before, on sugar cane related issues; is

20 that correct?

21 A. That's correct.

22 MR. MACFARLANE: Let's mark this as two

23 (indicating).

24 (The document referred to

25 was thereupon marked as

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 Coale Exhibit Number

2 Two for Identification,

3 a copy of which is attached

4 hereto.)

5 BY MR. MACFARLANE:

6 Q. Doctor Coale, I'm showing you what's

7 been marked as Exhibit Two.

8 Do you recognize that document

9 (indicating)?

10 A. Yes, I do. It looks like my current CV.

11 Q. I note on the first page, you indicated

12 you were an associate professor of agronomy at the

13 University of Maryland (indicating).

14 A. Yes.

15 Q. You have tenure; is that correct?

16 A. That's correct.

17 Q. And how long have you been an associate

18 professor at the University of Maryland?

19 A. Since July of '93.

20 Q. I note under your work experience, the

21 second paragraph, that you have done work at the

22 Everglades Research and Education Center at Belle

23 Glade, Florida.

24 How-- are you still affiliated with

25 EREC, as it's known?

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 A. No, I'm not.

2 Q. Are you still conducting research in

3 South Florida?

4 A. No, I'm not.

5 Q. When did you stop conducting research in

6 South Florida?

7 A. I resigned from my position with the

8 University of Florida in July of '93.

9 Q. Was there any particular reason you

10 resigned from your position?

11 A. To take the new position at the

12 University of Maryland.

13 Q. Do you work out at Bellsville, at the

14 agriculture extension?

15 Is that where it's--

16 A. No, in College Park, the University of

17 Maryland campus.

18 Q. Right. Doctor Coale, I would like you

19 to turn to-- let's see. Turn to page four

20 (indicating).

21 A. Uh-hum.

22 Q. Of your resume. It's a continuation of

23 your list of your refereed publications, and the

24 third publication down from the top, lists you as

25 author, along with and F.T. Izuno and A.B. Bottcher,

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 an article, sugar cane production impact on nitrogen

2 and phosphorus in drainage water from Everglades

3 histosols.

4 Is that currently in press?

5 A. No. That is published.

6 MR. MACFARLANE: Could we have a copy of

7 that?

8 MR. GAINES: Did we not give you a copy

9 of that one?

10 I thought that was one of the three that

11 we had sent you.

12 MR. MACFARLANE: Oh, I believe it is.

13 I'm sorry. I apologize.

14 MR. GAINES: Just for the record, we sent

15 to you three of his articles, copies of them, that I

16 think were the most germane to the subject matter of

17 this case.

18 There could possibly be other articles

19 in here that, you know, have some tangential

20 relationship, but we sent you the three, I think,

21 most--

22 MR. MACFARLANE: I would like to ask you

23 about some of the things on his resume that he

24 hasn't produced.

25 MR. GAINES: Okay.

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 BY MR. MACFARLANE:

2 Q. Let me ask you about the next article

3 down, the fourth down from the top on the same page.

4 A. Yes.

5 Q. Coale, F. J., D.B. Jones, reflood timing

6 for ratoon rice grown on Everglades histosols.

7 Has that been published yet?

8 A. No. That has not come out in print yet.

9 Q. Could you give me a brief idea of what

10 that article is about?

11 A. When you're growing rice on the

12 histosols in South Florida, a lot of-- you grow two

13 crops; you plant one and you let it grow, and let it

14 mature and harvest, and the stubble that remains is

15 referred to as ratoon, so you essentially get two

16 harvests off of one planting.

17 There's a very not well understood

18 effect of-- of course, you grow rice under a-- most

19 of the season, under a flooded condition, and at

20 harvest time, you take the water off and then you

21 come in with the combines and harvest the rice, and

22 if you are going to grow ratoon crops, you have to

23 to put the water back on to support the growth, and

24 that is the topic of that article, when to put the

25 water back on.

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 Q. What was the conclusion of your article?

2 A. The conclusion was that there was a-- I

3 guess, an ideal time, you would say, if I recall,

4 having-- if I recall, it was approximately 25 or 30

5 days of drained time, before reflooding the ratoon

6 crop, which is the best treatment.

7 Q. Was the research that you did that's

8 reflected in that article, done while you were

9 associated with EREC?

10 A. EREC?

11 Q. Yes.

12 A. Yes, it was.

13 Q. Let me ask you, previously about the--

14 it would be the sixth article down from the top,

15 Coale, Porter and Davis, soil amendments for

16 reducing phosphorus concentration of drainage water

17 from histosols.

18 A. Yes.

19 Q. Has that article been published?

20 A. No, not presently. Not yet.

21 Q. Could you give me an idea what that

22 article is about?

23 A. That was a laboratory study where we

24 collected some soil from the field, some histosol

25 organic soil from the field, and put it in columns,

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 cylinders, pipes, and we added different amendments

2 to the soil, and then we put on some high phosphorus

3 water on these columns and leached them with

4 distilled water, and measured what phosphorus

5 concentration came out the bottom of these columns.

6 Q. What were the amendments?

7 A. We had four amendment treatments. One

8 was a control, where there was no amendment, and

9 another one, dolominic lime, which is a natural

10 dolomoite product, and the third one was using

11 gypsum, and the fourth was using waste products from

12 a drinking water purification facility.

13 Q. What was that?

14 A. It was mainly calcium carbonate, what

15 the-- mainly calcium carbonate used for the

16 purification system, and an organic based polymer

17 they had, and I forget what that one was, and I'm

18 not sure what the total analysis was, but primarily

19 calcium carbonate.

20 Q. What did you conclude as a result of

21 this experiment?

22 A. Most of the treatments had no effect.

23 There was some evidence that the gypsum

24 amended soil tended to retain more phosphorus in the

25 soil and prevent it from leaching out than the other

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 amendment did, but we went to pretty great lengths

2 in the end, saying we are unsure about this.

3 There's some evidence, but it needed much more

4 study.

5 Q. Let me ask you to turn to page six of

6 your resume--

7 A. Yes.

8 Q. Or your CV, and at the top, you have

9 identified a book chapter, which you are an author.

10 Is that correct?

11 A. Yes.

12 Q. Titled Sugar Cane Production in the

13 Everglades Agricultural Area, in a book, titled

14 water, agriculture and the environment in the

15 Everglades.

16 Has this book been published yet?

17 A. That's a very good question.

18 I don't know. It's been a long, long,

19 long drawn out process.

20 It's supposed to be coming out this

21 year, but I haven't seen it.

22 Q. When did you do the research for this

23 article?

24 A. It was just a review article. No

25 original research in there.

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 It was done-- it was-- I'm guessing I

2 wrote that in about '85, '86-- no, excuse me. That

3 can't be right.

4 About '87 or '88.

5 Q. Was that article written in connection

6 with or work undertaken for the Institute of Food

7 and Agricultural Sciences for the University of

8 Florida?

9 A. Yes, there was.

10 There was an enlarged project at that

11 time, which the first part of the project

12 encompassed a literature review, and there were

13 several people involved with that, and it was

14 decided after the literature review was complete,

15 this would be a nice stand-alone publication for--

16 and we proceeded for publication, with that in mind.

17 Q. Let me ask you to flip it to the next

18 page, page seven (indicating).

19 A. (Witness complies.)

20 Q. And you have listed a number of

21 publications in the Everglades Rice Newsletter.

22 A. Uh-hum.

23 Q. Could you tell me what research you're

24 doing on rice?

25 Is this research you're doing at the

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 present time, or is this research-- I know the dates

2 of these publications are from '88 to '91.

3 There are various volumes of the

4 Everglades Rice Newsletter.

5 Let me ask you first, are you currently

6 doing research on rice cultivation in South Florida?

7 A. No, I'm not.

8 Q. During what period of time-- well, have

9 you done research on rice cultivation in South

10 Florida?

11 A. Yes, I have.

12 Q. During what period of time?

13 A. During my whole tenure on the faculty of

14 the University of Florida, which was '86 through

15 '93.

16 Q. Was the research you did on rice

17 cultivation, focused on the Everglades agricultural

18 area?

19 A. Yes. All the work that I did, was on

20 production, practices on the organic soils, which

21 are predominantly in the EAA.

22 Q. Would this be cultivation of rice in

23 conjunction with sugar cane or vegetable

24 cultivation?

25 A. In conjunction-- I'm taking that-- it's

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 the same types of land, grown in rotation with each

2 other.

3 That's what you mean-- our studies were

4 independent. They were just rice-- our studies were

5 just rice studies.

6 Q. Would this be cultivating rice on lands

7 that were also used for sugar cane production, just

8 as part of the growing cycle for sugar cane?

9 A. Yes. Most of the rice that's produced

10 in the EAA, is in rotation with sugar cane, so

11 that's the way it works.

12 Q. Were you investigating rice cultivation,

13 as a best management practice for sugar cane?

14 A. No, not really. I just like rice as a

15 crop to work with.

16 It's-- I think it's a nice crop, has a

17 good place in that area, and there's a lot of

18 unknownds on how to grow it.

19 We were just looking at production

20 practices.

21 Q. Do you think that rice cultivation is a

22 viable BMP for reducing phosphorus in the EAA?

23 A. I think it can play a role. How

24 important, I'm not sure, but it can play a role.

25 Q. But you have never investigated for that

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 purpose?

2 A. No.

3 Q. Page 12--

4 A. Yes.

5 Q. I want to direct your attention-- these

6 are a continuation of lists of non-refereed and

7 extension publications, printed fact sheets and

8 research reports, and I want to direct your

9 attention to the fourth article from the top, where

10 you are listed as a coauthor, I believe.

11 Is that correct?

12 A. Yes.

13 Q. A 1989 study of manganese and phosphorus

14 studies (indicating).

15 A. Uh-hum.

16 Q. Can you tell me briefly what that paper

17 was about?

18 A. I--

19 Q. Or that report?

20 A. Let me tell you what that report is.

21 This is a field day report, and it says 12th Annual

22 Rice Field Day.

23 That grandiose title refers to about a

24 one paragraph description that was given to farmers

25 on a tour of research plots, so there's not much to

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 it. There's not much substance.

2 It essentially describes the experiment

3 in place, what the treatments were and observations

4 were that we made to date.

5 Q. What was the treatment?

6 A. Well, this study-- this is one that--

7 one explanation-- this is little publication, if I

8 remember correctly, again, and it's a while since I

9 have seen this-- actually was describing several

10 different experiments at one stop on a tour, if you

11 would.

12 My involvement there was I have this

13 interest in root system development of different

14 crop plants, and I was looking at the effect of

15 manganese treatments as a fertilizer treatment on

16 the root system development of rice, and that was my

17 role.

18 Some of the other cooperators, like

19 George Sniden, was looking at the phosphorus

20 fertility at rest.

21 Q. You weren't focusing on phosphorus,

22 yourself?

23 A. No.

24 If I remember correctly-- a caution,

25 that I might not remember correctly, because I

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 haven't seen this since 1989-- I was looking at the

2 manganese, the effect on rice root growth.

3 Q. Did you come to any conclusion about the

4 use of manganese as a fertilizer, or--

5 A. Well, there are several situations where

6 it's very helpful, but there's other ways to-- when

7 you get a high PH soil, that manganese becomes

8 deficient, but an easy way to correct that is to put

9 the rice crop-- flood water on the rice crop, which

10 causes reduction of the soil and liberates the

11 manganese, so you can avoid it.

12 Q. It--

13 A. It works, but you don't need it.

14 Q. Where was the rice actually being grown,

15 that was displayed on this--

16 A. That was at the Everglades Research and

17 Education Center.

18 Q. Was that being grown in high PH soil?

19 A. Yes. I believe the PH was about seven.

20 Q. Let me ask you about the next article

21 down from that, Phosphorus Fertilization of Rice On

22 a Low-P Histosol.

23 Is this the similar kind of report to

24 the previous article you just discussed?

25 A. Let's see. Yes, very similar.

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 That was-- a two-page-- let's see. Page

2 17 and 19-- report in a growers seminar proceeding,

3 which is a very similar type of deal of-- of

4 presentation, where we invite the rice growers in,

5 and talk to them about what we have going on, and

6 give them little proceedings, and--

7 Q. Do you remember or do you recall what

8 the point of this particular presentation was?

9 A. No, I don't, and as the priority of

10 authorship, I'm on the tail end-- I probably had

11 very little to do with it.

12 Q. Can I assume that priorty of authorship,

13 holds through most of the publications listed here

14 (indicating)?

15 A. Yes. That's true.

16 Q. Do you have any views about the use of

17 phosphorus fertilization on rice, in low phosphorus

18 histosols?

19 A. Generally, there hasn't been very good

20 response to phosphorus fertility treatments in

21 rice.

22 It's an invariable, and inconclsive.

23 The last time I looked at the

24 recommendation a couple of years ago, we weren't

25 recommending the use of phosphorus fertilizer.

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 Q. Why would that be?

2 Is that because whatever phosphorus the

3 rice needs, it can get from the soil directly?

4 A. Apparently.

5 Q. Have you done any studies on phosphorus

6 uptake in rice?

7 A. Not that I can recall.

8 Q. Have you done research on that subject?

9 A. I can't say for sure, but most probably,

10 I have.

11 Q. And that would be the basis-- would that

12 be the basis of your conclusion that phosphorus

13 fertilization of rice is not recommended?

14 A. Oh, yes.

15 There are publications that say that.

16 Q. Let's move right along here to page 16

17 (indicating).

18 A. (Witness complies.)

19 Q. Doctor Coale, the two articles at the

20 top of page 16, and this is a list of abstracts,

21 incidently--

22 A. Uh-hum.

23 Q. Concerning sugar cane variety trials

24 (indicating).

25 A. Yes.

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 Q. Have you undertaken research on sugar

2 cane varieties?

3 A. Yes. The work I have done pertained to

4 doing side by side comparison of commercially

5 available varieties, and make an assessment of their

6 production potential.

7 Q. And have you done any research on the

8 development of sugar cane varieties, that are more--

9 I'll use the term, resistant to inundation by water?

10 A. No, I haven't done any research on that.

11 Q. Are you aware of research that's being

12 done on that subject?

13 A. I have one project that I observed.

14 I didn't have any involvement in it. It

15 was Doctor Christopher Darin, a University of

16 Florida faculty member.

17 He screened a pretty large population of

18 varieties. I'm not sure of the numbers, but I'll

19 guess somewhere in the neighborhood of a hundred--

20 to get an idea of the variation amongst this big

21 population, in tolerance, and he's a breeder, plant

22 breeder, and he's studying a heritable variation, in

23 terms of whether it was truly heritable.

24 Q. Do you recall if he came to any

25 conclusions?

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 A. I believe he did.

2 Probably, at the time-- it still doesn't

3 mean a lot to me, because he had these hundred

4 varieties or so, and as I said, maybe 20 percent of

5 them produced nicely, and 80 percent of them didn't,

6 or what have you, but I think his results were that

7 it was quite a variation in productivity potential.

8 Q. Where you aware of whether this research

9 is ongoing?

10 A. I haven't spoken with him recently. I'm

11 not sure what the status is.

12 Q. Are you aware of any other research

13 that's going on regarding the development of sugar

14 cane varieties that could withstand inundation for

15 lengthier periods of time?

16 A. Other than the work that Doctor Darin

17 and--

18 Q. Yes.

19 A. No.

20 Q. Let me direct your attention to-- let's

21 see. The fourth article from the bottom on page 16,

22 which lists you along with Doctors Izuno and

23 Bottcher on Drainage Water Quality and Phosphorus

24 and Nitrogen Utilization by Sugar Cane Grown On

25 Everglades Histosols.

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 A. Yes.

2 Q. Is that article one of the produced-- on

3 one of the papers that you have produced for your

4 deposition today?

5 MR. GAINES: Which one?

6 MR. MACFARLANE: It's the fourth from the

7 bottom, John.

8 MR. GAINES: Okay.

9 THE WITNESS: That's an abstract of an

10 oral presentation.

11 Actually, it was a poster presentation

12 given at the American Society of Agronomy meeting,

13 and one paragraph type of abstract, and this is a

14 summary of-- I think the three papers that John sent

15 over to you.

16 BY MR. MACFARLANE:

17 Q. Would that be true also for the next

18 paper down, Sugar Cane, Phosphorus Water, The

19 everglades and a Pinch of Science?

20 A. Yes, same topic.

21 Q. Same topic?

22 A. Yes.

23 Q. Can you briefly summarize what the

24 conclusions were, if you can recall?

25 A. That it was-- there's a lot of

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 information packed in there.

2 We can spend some time going through all

3 the conclusions, if you would like.

4 What the conclusions of those

5 manuscripts, the three--

6 Q. We'll get to those, then.

7 A. On page--

8 Q. All right. On page 17, the fourth

9 abstract listed from the top, Affected Area of

10 Nutrient Acquisition for Sugar Cane Grown on

11 Everglades Histosols.

12 Do you recall that abstract?

13 A. Yes.

14 Q. And what was the conclusion?

15 A. That was a study in which it was mainly

16 a research techniques type study, where we were

17 putting-- conducted fertility trials, or any trial

18 on these-- it sounds trivial, but how much bigger

19 the plots you need to use before you start getting

20 cross or contamination from one plot to the adjacent

21 plot, so we used in 15 labeled nitrogen, a

22 non-radioactive tracer to get a handle on how far

23 from-- how much sugar cane plants could acquire

24 nutrient.

25 We couldn't distinguish what was moving,

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 the nutrient in the soil, and how far the roots went

2 out to get them, but we just decided, if you have a

3 plot of sugar cane, you need to have a certain size

4 plot, and a certain buffer distance between plots,

5 before you start getting contamination between

6 plots.

7 Q. Do you recall offhand what the size of

8 that area was?

9 A. The buffer area, I believe, was two or

10 three rows, which would be 10 or 15 feet.

11 Q. Have you made recommendations or do you

12 know if recommendations have been made to the sugar

13 industry, based upon your findings in this study?

14 A. Well, we presented this, with this--

15 this publication, and it's an abstract in the sugar

16 journal, which is an industrywide journal, so that's

17 available to them through that.

18 Q. Page 18--

19 A. Yes.

20 Q. Right at the top there you have two

21 papers in which you're listed as a coauthor here,

22 with others?

23 A. Yes.

24 Q. First, Phosphorus Concentrations From

25 Drainage Water In Fields From the EAA, and Potential

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 BMPs.

2 A. Yes.

3 Q. Is that article-- let me ask it this

4 way: Are the conclusions in that article,

5 essentially covered in the three papers that you

6 have produced for your deposition today?

7 A. I'm-- I can't recall what the

8 conclusions of that article were, or was.

9 It depends on how many there were.

10 Q. Right.

11 A. But it's all the same group of projects,

12 so it would all be encompassed.

13 Q. The next paper down, Phosphorus

14 Concentrations in Drainage Water in the Everglades

15 Agricultural Area.

16 That's an abstract?

17 A. Yes.

18 The one above it, also.

19 Q. Do you recall what you reported in that

20 abstract?

21 A. What I believe that was, was the

22 results-- I can't say for sure. It's been a long

23 time since I have seen that, but it was the same

24 group of studies.

25 We did one collection of studies, and

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 all these presentations and publications were

2 derived from that same group of studies.

3 Q. This group of studies concerned BMPs

4 that were appropriate for sugar cane cultivation?

5 A. Yes.

6 Q. Do you generally come to any conclusions

7 about which BMPs were most effective in the sugar

8 cane cultivation?

9 A. No. That really wasn't my intent in the

10 work that I did.

11 We were trying to not rank them or

12 prioritize them, the relative effectiveness of any

13 of the BMPs listed?

14 A. We were trying to compare one BMP,

15 versus a control, and trying to get some more

16 individual data on practices.

17 Q. Would it be fair to say, you were just

18 trying to find out what you worked and what you

19 didn't?

20 A. Yes.

21 Q. About midway down the page, you are

22 listed as a coauthor with D. J. Pitts.

23 A. Yes.

24 Q. D.L. Myer and J.M. Grimm, Influence of

25 Depth to Water Table on Yield of Sugar Cane Grown on

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 Sandy Soil.

2 Do you recall what you were doing on

3 that abstract?

4 A. Yes. The whole project-- I was a very

5 congenial member of that team. I didn't have a great

6 deal of involved with it, and I think the outcome of

7 that project pretty much flooped.

8 Q. What do you mean flopped?

9 A. I think-- this happens with

10 environment-- the way it was designed in the field,

11 we couldn't do what he wanted to do, and as far as

12 controlling water levels, etcetera, and therefore,

13 the data was all confounded, very difficult to make

14 a conclusion.

15 Q. Was this experiment done in connection

16 with IFAS?

17 A. Yes. It was conducted at the Southwest

18 Florida Research and Education Center over in

19 Immocolee, Florida.

20 Q. And what was the point of the

21 experiment?

22 What were you trying to find out?

23 A. The people involved Doctor Pitt, Mr.

24 Grimm and Doctor Myer, were looking at-- Doctor

25 Pitts is an ag engineer who handled irrigation,

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 drainage, water table problems, so forth, didn't

2 know anything about sugar cane.

3 My role-- set up the-- my role was to do

4 some measurment of the sugar cane production and

5 essentially let him know what his manipulation of

6 water management impact was on the sugar cane

7 production, so my role was just to document what's

8 going on with the crop.

9 Q. Do you have any understanding of why the

10 experiment flopped?

11 A. From what I understand, and this is--

12 again, this is recollection that might be a little

13 hazy-- what I understand was that the water table

14 levels that they were able to maintain, they

15 couldn't maintain.

16 In other words, you had to find

17 treatments, and you couldn't maintain the

18 treatments, so therefore the whole thing is

19 compromised.

20 Q. Was that a pumping problem? Do you

21 recall?

22 A. I don't really recall.

23 I think it was a plot design problem, a

24 pumping problem, a plumbing problem-- I think there

25 were all kinds of things that messed it up.

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 MR. GAINES: Sounds like a flop to me.

2 THE WITNESS: It was a flop, but we did

3 it.

4 BY MR. MACFARLANE:

5 Q. Do you intend to testify about

6 phosphorus loads in water discharged from the EAA

7 into the Everglades protection area?

8 A. No.

9 MR. GAINES: Well, wait a minute.

10 THE WITNESS: In the Everglades

11 protection area?

12 MR. GAINES: Do you know what he is

13 referring to by that?

14 THE WITNESS: I'm assuming you mean the

15 water conservation areas.

16 MR. MACFARLANE: I'll clarify it.

17 BY MR. MACFARLANE:

18 Q. Do you intend to offer testimony about

19 phosphorus loading in water discharged from the EAA

20 into the water conservation areas?

21 MR. GAINES: I guess I'm not

22 understanding-- maybe you guys are understanding

23 this question better than I am, but the BMP

24 testimony, it's a very central testimony, in all of

25 the BMP testimony, unless there's some more

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 technical aspects about your question I'm not

2 following.

3 MR. MACFARLANE: I guess it was a lead in

4 to the papers that Doctor Coale has produced for

5 this deposition, but I--

6 BY MR. MACFARLANE:

7 Q. Have you actually gone out and done

8 water sampling in connection with runoff from farms

9 in the EAA?

10 A. Yes. We have done some work in that

11 area.

12 Q. Will your testimony be based on that

13 research?

14 A. Yes.

15 Q. Will it-- and that research has been

16 undertaken by you, as well as others?

17 A. Yes, in collaborating with others, at

18 times.

19 Q. And how long have you been carrying on

20 research or-- withdraw that.

21 How long have you been sampling, doing

22 the sampling of water quality in the EAA?

23 A. Yes. Well, there is a team of scientists

24 working for the University of Florida, that I was

25 part of that team, so there's-- multifaceted team

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 effort of taking-- it started, I believe, roughly

2 about 1988, and it was continued through the time I

3 left the University of Florida in 1993.

4 Q. Is it fair to see or would it be correct

5 for me to infer from what you've said about moving

6 from Florida up to Maryland--

7 A. Yes.

8 Q. That you are no longer engaged in water

9 sampling activities in the EAA?

10 A. That's correct.

11 Q. And you stopped doing that in July of

12 '93?

13 A. Yes.

14 Probably in a practicle sense, some time

15 before that.

16 Q. Do you know if that water sampling-- if

17 the team of scientists is still conducting that

18 water sampling?

19 A. I believe some of the people are still

20 there, and some of the similar type of work is

21 continuing.

22 Q. Was that water sampling activity done in

23 connection with field tests of specific BMPs that

24 were being implemented in the EAA?

25 A. Parts of it were, yes.

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 MR. MACFARLANE: Let me mark this as

2 Number Three (indicating).

3 (The document referred to

4 was thereupon marked as

5 Coale Exhibit Number

6 Three for Identification,

7 a copy of which is attached

8 hereto.)

9 BY MR. MACFARLANE:

10 Q. Doctor Coale, I have handed you Coale

11 Exhibit Number Three.

12 This is an article entitled Nutrient

13 Accumulation and Removal By Sugar Cane Grown On

14 everglades Histosols, and you are listed as an

15 author (indicating).

16 Is that correct?

17 A. That's correct.

18 Q. And, in fact, you were listed, as I

19 understand from the first page here, as the

20 corresponding author.

21 A. That's correct.

22 Q. What is the corresponding author?

23 A. That is the person responsible for

24 handling all the correspondence with editors and

25 management editors of the journals, and handle the

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 billing, for page charges, etcetera.

2 Q. How much of this article, if you can

3 recall-- how much of this article did you actually

4 write, yourself?

5 A. Virtually all of it.

6 Q. What was the work that Doctors Izuno and

7 Bottcher-- what was their input?

8 A. This was a resulting product of an

9 overall large project that was initiated to the-- of

10 Izuno and Bottcher, so they were team members.

11 Q. And the project concerned what?

12 A. It was looking at BMPs or on-farm--

13 on-farm type, and it originally started out for

14 nitrogen and phosphorus reduction in the EAA.

15 Q. Doctor Coale, I would like to direct

16 your attention to the first paragraph (indicating).

17 A. Uh-hum.

18 Q. And just a little bit above half way

19 down that paragraph, there's a sentence that reads,

20 "Phosphorus has been determined to be the

21 biologically limiting nutrient in neighboring Lake

22 Okeechobee."

23 Do you see that sentence?

24 A. Yes, I do.

25 Q. Do you agree with that statement?

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 A. Referenced with Federico in this

2 publication-- the date that he presented it, I

3 believe it was true.

4 Q. What is your understanding of the

5 phrase, biologically limiting nutrient?

6 A. In a general sense, it refers to the

7 growth of microorganisms and small macroorganisms,

8 like algae, etcetera, that-- their growth and

9 productivity is limited, because they essentially in

10 this case, have run out of phosphorus, there's not

11 enough there to support expansion of their

12 populations, and therefore, that's why-- that is why

13 phosphorus is a limiting nutrient, and you add more

14 into the system, then the population is going to

15 continue to be able to expand.

16 Q. Would it be an inference to be drawn

17 from that statement, that large amounts of

18 phosphorus would greatly expand the population of

19 those algae and other plant organisms that you were

20 mentioning?

21 A. Yes, until the point where something

22 else, other than that one element, becomes limiting.

23 Q. The next sentence down from that,

24 "Hence, the influx of P into Lake Okeechobee

25 through agriculture drainage has been proposed as a

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 contributing factor to the Lake's eutrophication."

2 MR. GAINES: I object to the form of the

3 question.

4 BY MR. MACFARLANE:

5 Q. Do you agree--

6 MR. GAINES: I don't know if you are

7 asking him whether he agrees it has been proposed,

8 or he agrees with the proposal.

9 BY MR. MACFARLANE:

10 Q. Let's start with, do you agree it was

11 proposed as a contributing factor to the Lake's

12 eutrophication?

13 A. Yes, and I have a citation there, and

14 that was the source of that.

15 Q. And would you agree that the influx of

16 phosphorus into Lake Okeechobee, your understanding

17 of the research reflected in the citation there, was

18 a contributing factor to the Lake's accelerating

19 eutrophication?

20 A. I really can't say.

21 I really don't have any firsthand

22 experience of measuring eutrophication.

23 Q. Have you studied the eutrophication

24 process?

25 A. No, I haven't.

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 Q. Let me go back to the previous sentence.

2 Do you believe that phosphorus is a

3 biologically limiting nutrient in the WCAs?

4 A. I have--

5 MR. GAINES: You can answer. I object.

6 It's outside his area of designation of

7 his testimony, but if you have an opinion--

8 THE WITNESS: I haven't done any studies,

9 and I really don't know.

10 BY MR. MACFARLANE:

11 Q. Let me ask you to turn to page 313

12 (indicating).

13 A. {Witness complies.)

14 Okay.

15 Q. And there's a-- I guess it's the

16 paragraph that begins on that page (indicating).

17 I would like you to look at the last two

18 sentences, "Crop P removal, was equivalent to 63

19 percent of total crop accumulation and 179 percent

20 of added fertilizer P. Apparently fertilizer P was a

21 minor contribution to the total soil pool of plant

22 available P," and that's-- as far as you are

23 concerned, that's a true statement?

24 A. Yes, it is.

25 Q. Could you explain very briefly, why

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 fertilizer P is a minor contribution to the total

2 soil pool of plant available P?

3 I assume you--

4 A. Right.

5 Q. I'm assuming you are including sugar

6 cane.

7 A. Right. The first of those two sentences

8 you read, where we said that the crop accumulated--

9 where I am now, crop accumulated certain amount of

10 phosphorus in the plant, and that accumulated

11 phosphorus, was equal, then, to 179 percent, or one

12 and three quarters times the amount of fertilizer

13 phosphorus that was put on the field to grow that

14 crop.

15 The efficiency of fertilizer phosphorus,

16 is not a hundred percent. You don't get it all back

17 in the crop that you put on.

18 Q. Why is that?

19 A. The chemical reaction of the phosphorus

20 fertilizer in the soil-- a lot of it becomes

21 chemically unavailable or physically unavailable for

22 the plant, and therefore, to have the plant

23 accumulate 179 percent of what you added, the--

24 there are-- the derivation from that is, what you

25 added is a minor part of what the total available

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 amount to the crop was.

2 Q. So is the inference to be drawn-- well,

3 let me ask you, what inference would you draw from

4 that, as to where the phosphorus is coming from that

5 the sugar cane is taking up?

6 A. These organic soils, the histosols, have

7 a large background level of plant available

8 phosphorus that's there, whether you add fertilizer

9 or you don't.

10 It's a background level, and it's

11 apparently fairly substantial, and the sugar cane

12 crop can utilize that.

13 MR. MACFARLANE: Mark this as the next

14 exhibit, Four (indicating).

15 (The document referred to

16 was thereupon marked as

17 Coale Exhibit Number

18 Four for Identification,

19 a copy of which is attached

20 hereto.) A

21 BY MR. MACFARLANE:

22 Q. Doctor Coale, I have shown you Exhibit

23 Number Four. This is an article entitled Sugar Cane

24 Production Impact on Nitrogen and Phosphorus in

25 Drainage Water from an Everglades Histosol, and you

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 are listed as a coauthor with F.T. Izuno and A.B.

2 Bottcher; is that correct?

3 A. That's correct.

4 Q. Once again, Doctor Coale, did you do

5 most of the writing and the research that went into

6 this article?

7 A. Yes. I wrote this article (indicating).

8 Q. Where was the histosol that was the

9 subject of this research?

10 A. Let's see. This one was at the

11 Everglades Research and Education Center in Belle

12 Glade, Florida.

13 Q. Let me direct your attention to page

14 120, last page (indicating).

15 A. Yes.

16 Q. And at the top paragraph, it-- the third

17 sentence down, reads, "Much of the P loading in

18 drainage water may be attributed to these high

19 levels of soil P."

20 A. Yes.

21 Q. I assume you would regard that as

22 consistent with the finding of the article as it

23 exists in this Exhibit Three (indicating)?

24 A. Yes, that would be the same information.

25 Q. Continuing, "Biological oxidation of

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 soil organic matter which results in land

2 subsidence, has been identified as the primary

3 source of nutrients in drainage waters."

4 Do you agree with that statement, still

5 (indicating)?

6 A. That was reference statement from a

7 publication I have cited there in the text, on--

8 I have no reason to believe that it's

9 not true.

10 Q. And it continues, "It has been estimated

11 that subsidence in the EAA, generates 24,800

12 milligrams phosphorus."

13 A. That's megagams.

14 Q. I apologize, megagrams of phosphorus per

15 year, or 87 kilograms of phosphorus per hectare per

16 year?

17 A. Right.

18 Q. Do you have any reason to disagree with

19 that statement?

20 A. No, I don't.

21 Q. Have you undertaken research on

22 subsidence in the EAA?

23 A. No, not directly.

24 Q. Do you anticipate giving any testimony

25 at the final hearing on subsidence?

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 A. If asked, I have some opinions.

2 MR. GAINES: I think that general topic

3 of subsidence would be within his scope.

4 BY MR. MACFARLANE:

5 Q. While we're on the subject, can you tell

6 me what your opinions are with regard to subsidence?

7 A. Well, just based on the chemistry and

8 biochemistry that is going on in these organic

9 soils, the-- if-- maybe I should ask you to narrow

10 that down.

11 MR. KOBELINZKI: And maybe I should

12 object to the form. It's kind of a broad question.

13 THE WITNESS: It was kind of a huge

14 question.

15 MR. KOBELINZKI: If you could focus a

16 little more on what you're asking him. That would

17 help.

18 BY MR. MACFARLANE:

19 Q. Well, let me come at it this way: You

20 conclude here that phosphorus loading in drainage

21 water is treatable to high levels of soil

22 phosphorus.

23 A. Yes.

24 Q. While the contribution of fertilizer to

25 phosphorus, to total drainage water, was

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 undetectable.

2 I don't know--

3 A. I was looking--

4 Q. I'm sorry. I apologize. I don't think

5 that's what you said directly.

6 Would maintaining a high water table,

7 slow down the oxidation of soils of histosols in the

8 EAA?

9 A. Let me make sure we have the same

10 terminology going here, because-- water table, high,

11 inordinate--

12 A. I consider a high water table being

13 closer to the surface.

14 Q. That's my understanding, as well.

15 A. A soil can only oxidize if it's in an

16 aerobic state, aerated, and if it's saturated with

17 water, it's primarily in an anaerobic state, and

18 oxidation would be reduced.

19 Q. Does it follow, maintaining high water

20 table and anerobic conditions in the soil, would

21 retard subsidence?

22 A. Yes.

23 Q. Do you have an opinion as to whether

24 subsidence will continue in the EAA on the

25 histosols?

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 A. Given the way the soils are managed,

2 currently?

3 Q. Yes.

4 A. As long as these organic soils are

5 aerated, there will be some degree of subsidence.

6 Q. Do you-- would it follow from the

7 sentences we have just focused on this paragraph,

8 120, that water table management BMP, would have an

9 impact on reducing soil oxidation?

10 A. Water-- that would really depend on what

11 the water table management BMP did, what its final

12 outcome was.

13 Q. I think we'll get to that in a minute,

14 so--

15 A. Okay.

16 (The document referred to

17 was thereupon marked as

18 Coale Exhibit Number

19 Five for Identification,

20 a copy of which is attached

21 hereto.)

22 BY MR. MACFARLANE:

23 Q. Doctor Coale, I have shown you the third

24 paper that's been produced as-- for your deposition,

25 and this is entitled, Phosphorus in Drainage Water

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 from Sugar Cane in Everglades Agriculture Areas As

2 Affected by Drainage Rate.

3 You were listed, again, as a coauthor

4 with Doctor Izuno and Bottcher; is that correct?

5 A. That's correct.

6 Q. Once again, did you write-- were you the

7 primary author of this paper?

8 A. Yes, I was.

9 Q. What-- can you just generally describe

10 for me, what it was that-- what the experiment was

11 that you were undertaking here, that's reported on

12 (indicating)?

13 A. Okay.

14 Q. These were studies involving sugar cane

15 growing on histosols. What the treatments were, with

16 simplisticly, a fast and a slow drainage rate from

17 different plots at that site, and measuring the

18 impact of these drainage rate treatments on crop

19 productivity and the water quality parameters of

20 nutrients in the water coming off those plots.

21 Q. If you can recall, and we can look at a

22 specific passage--

23 A. Yes.

24 Q. Let me ask you generally, if you recall

25 what the conclusion of this paper was.

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 A. I recall, because it was the opposite of

2 what we thought it was going to be when we started

3 out, which is enlightening sometimes.

4 I believe our general conclusion was

5 that in reference to field drainage water, as the

6 water coming comes the fields, that it was-- had

7 your least amount of-- lowest concentration, I

8 should say, of phosphorus, under the faster drainage

9 rate reatment, than under the slow.

10 Q. All right.

11 A. That was the bottom line.

12 Q. Why was that a surprise?

13 A. Well, our original hypothesis was if you

14 drained it faster, you would get more turbulent

15 flow. You would get more of an erosion type of

16 runoff drainage coming off that field, and

17 therefore, your sediment load or particulate or

18 phosphorus, would be much higher, but we didn't see

19 that.

20 Q. What was the recommendation or-- let me

21 ask you this way: Was there a recommendation that

22 came out of this paper?

23 A. Let me look, to make sure (indicating).

24 Q. The best thing to do would probably be

25 for me to point you to a particular passage

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 (indicating).

2 A. Okay.

3 Q. Let's turn to 125, at the very end

4 (indicating).

5 A. Yes.

6 Q. Almost at the very end there, there's a

7 sentence, "If, at the initiation of a drainage

8 event, main farm canal water which has relatively

9 low TP and TDP concentrations was rapidly pumped off

10 farm, a steep drainage gradient would develop

11 between the main farm canal and field water tables.

12 Further, if unobstructed field ditches that provided

13 minimal physical resistance to drainage water flow,

14 were maintained, the field drainage rate would be

15 fast. This situation would ensure field draining

16 water with relatively low TP and TDP

17 concentrations."

18 Let's stop there (indicating).

19 A. Okay.

20 Q. Is what you're recommending there, then,

21 that farmers employ a fast drain approach or fast

22 drainage approach when they pump?

23 A. I think there's a critical distinction

24 that needs to be made, and I think it's in here

25 somewhere (indicating.)

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 Yes. The same paragraph you were

2 reading, but the first couple of sentences of that

3 paragraph, I just want to make sure we are both on

4 the same page--

5 Q. Yes.

6 A. This study is relative to field

7 drainage. Farm drainage, which is what comes out of

8 the main farm canal and into the area network

9 canals--

10 Q. Yes.

11 A. Is a different phenomena that we need to

12 study.

13 This is referring to field drainage

14 coming out of the farm ditches, into the receiving

15 canals.

16 Under that condition, yes, we want to

17 see the water come off those fields into the main

18 farm canal as fast as possible.

19 Q. Did you make any recommendation here

20 about the duration of pumping at the fast drainage

21 rate?

22 Is that a subject--

23 A. I don't believe we did at all.

24 Q. Let me ask you generally about the three

25 articles we just looked at briefly.

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 How would you or would you use the

2 analysis in these three papers to make

3 recommendations, if you were called upon to do so,

4 for reducing phosphorus loads from the EAA into the

5 Everglades, the water conservation areas?

6 A. On these three papers, the first one we

7 looked at was a descriptive paper, was just ascribed

8 for-- when a sugar cane crop accumulated different

9 nutrients.

10 It gives you an idea what part of the

11 growth cycle and what part of the calendar year was

12 the most rapid accumulation rate of nutrients from

13 the soil water matrix the plant is grown in.

14 That gives you some idea what the plant

15 demand is when there's low plant demand and high.

16 We can use information like that if

17 you're trying to time applications of a nutrient. If

18 you make a nutrient available to the plant at the

19 point of high demand, the chances of that plant of

20 accumulating that nutrient is greater, than when

21 there's a low time, so-- which is common sense.

22 The second one, the second paper here,

23 is marked as number four--

24 Q. Yes.

25 A. Number four is-- was essentially

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 comparing sugar cane-- growing sugar cane and fallow

2 land side by side, and looking at what the relative

3 contributions to phosphorus and nitrogen in drainage

4 water coming off those lands were, and the bottom

5 line was there was no distinguishable difference.

6 Q. Let me stop you and ask you what--

7 A. Okay.

8 Q. Do you see an implication in that

9 conclusion, for a recommendation on agriculture BMPs

10 to reduce phosphorus?

11 A. The main-- I say it with a smile on my

12 face. The court reporter can't get that down, and

13 there's a--

14 Q. Let the record reflect Doctor Coale is

15 smiling.

16 A. The main practical application of that

17 study was to see that if you just stop producing

18 sugar cane on these soils and let them sit idle,

19 you're going to have the same situation as far as

20 the quality of the water coming off the land, as you

21 have now with the sugar cane being grown, so if

22 they-- having vacant land is not a BMP. That was the

23 practical use of that data.

24 Q. Do you see any other conclusion as to

25 BMPs that might relate to that finding?

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 I know that's awfully broad, but--

2 A. At that time-- I-- I think that's about

3 all it says.

4 Q. What about the last one?

5 A. The third one as we just recently talked

6 about, was the drainage rate, and we can talk about

7 our conclusion, as far as-- about how you would use

8 these drainage rate differences and the data we

9 collected on the different drainage rates and how

10 that could be incorporated into farm water

11 management.

12 Q. So you say that primarily is a finding

13 that would lead to a recommendation that you or

14 someone else might make to individual farmers, as to

15 using what-- a pump BMP?

16 A. I wouldn't even call it a pump BMP,

17 because this whole study, we never used pumps. We

18 were at the whim of the commercial pump operation.

19 All it does, management of water within

20 the property.

21 It wasn't-- there were no BMPs involved

22 in it.

23 Q. Was it concerned at all with water table

24 management, or just strictly speaking, getting water

25 off the fields, let's say, during a rain event or

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 just after?

2 A. Right. The topic was strictly drainage

3 rate, getting the water off, how fast it came out.

4 Q. And was any phosphorus loss within the

5 water, strictly in relation to which the-- speed to

6 which the water was gotten off?

7 A. Right.

8 Q. I'm going to shift gears here.

9 Do you want to take a brief break?

10 MR. GAINES: Yes. Let's take two minutes.

11 (Thereupon a recess was taken

12 in the deposition, after which

13 the deposition continued as follows:)

14 MR. MACFARLANE: Back on the record.

15 Let's mark this as the next exhibit.

16 (The document referred to

17 was thereupon marked as

18 Coale Exhibit Number

19 Six for Identification,

20 a copy of which is attached

21 hereto.)

22 BY MR. MACFARLANE:

23 Q. Doctor Coale, I've just handed you a--

24 an extract of the planning document of the

25 Everglades SWIM Plan.

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 Do you recognize that (indicating)?

2 A. I have seen it.

3 Q. Have you had occasion to read the SWIM

4 Plan?

5 A. No. I have never studied it from front

6 to back.

7 I have looked at bits and pieces of it.

8 Q. Have you read the portion that I have

9 excerpted there, from-- let's see. It would be page

10 110 to 117, dealing with the regulatory-- the EAA

11 regulatory program (indicating).

12 A. Let me briefly walk through it.

13 Q. Sure. Take a look. Take your time

14 (indicating).

15 A. Part of this I recall, and other parts,

16 I don't recall having read it before.

17 Q. Let me direct your attention to page 113

18 (indicating).

19 A. (Witness complies.)

20 Q. And on page 113 is this list or

21 beginning of a list of BMPs with associated

22 phosphorus reduction ranges (indicating).

23 A. Uh-hum.

24 Q. Are you familiar with this particular

25 list of BMPs?

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 A. Yes, I have seen this list.

2 Q. Let me just-- let's just go through

3 this, and let me ask you, directing your attention

4 to BMP number one, calibrated soil test

5 recommendations.

6 What is your understanding, if you have

7 one, of what that BMP is?

8 A. A calculated soil test is a tool to use

9 to give guidance to a farmer about how much

10 fertilizer is needed to be applied to a crop, to

11 achieve his maximum productivity potential.

12 Q. How does that work?

13 A. It's kind of a long, evolving process.

14 There's two phases to it, really.

15 First, the researcher must identify a

16 laboratory methodology by which they can take a

17 soil, collect it from a field, and essentially, what

18 you do in a crude nutshell, is put it in a glass and

19 shake it up with an extracting solution, and then

20 you measure the concentration of the nutrient and

21 solution that you pool off of that soil sample that

22 you are working with, and try to find, identify an

23 extracting solution that has a representative

24 extracting power from very low on soils, that

25 doesn't have a lot of nutrient that you're looking

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 to-- as opposed to extracting it from soils that

2 have a lot of nutrient in it, and so that's the

3 correlation phase, and so you have this extractant

4 that you are using with the soils, and then you

5 identify levels of extractable nutrient from a soil,

6 and you make a relationship between that soil test

7 level and crop response to the fertilizer, and from

8 that, you can say if you have a soil test, using an

9 arbitrary number, ten units, then we recommend you

10 need to put on X-number of pounds of whatever

11 nutrient you're interested in.

12 Q. Do you have an opinion as to whether

13 implementation of calibrated soil test BMP, could

14 reduce phosphorus losses from zero to 25, zero to

15 ten percent, for vegetables and sugar cane,

16 respectively?

17 A. As far as the exact ranges, I can't say.

18 They're probably in the ballpark.

19 Truly, zero is a realistic number on one

20 end, because if a grower is already doing that, it's

21 not going to do him any good to continue doing it,

22 so he has it in his base already, so it's standard

23 operating procedures, and the end number is

24 depending on how poor of a manager the farm was-- if

25 he was grossly over-applying, a soil test may give

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 him a tremendous, one, savings in fertilizer cost,

2 and two, savings in application of the nutrient, but

3 if he was a reasonable manager, maybe it wouldn't

4 help him at all. Maybe he was on target to begin

5 with.

6 Q. Have you undertaken any study of this

7 particular BMP, yourself?

8 A. I haven't done any soil test

9 calculations with sugar cane.

10 What I-- my experience is, I manage this

11 soil testing lab at the Everglades Research and

12 Education Center for a couple of years.

13 Q. So in that capacity, did you actually

14 perform soil tests?

15 A. I didn't perform them. We had

16 technicians that actually did the laboratory work,

17 but I supervised them.

18 Q. Would you-- were you called upon to

19 recommend a BMP to sugar cane growers-- would this

20 be a BMP you would recommend?

21 A. Yes. I would like to see every grower

22 use soil testing.

23 Q. Let me draw your attention to the second

24 one, "Banding fertilizer for vegetable production,

25 instead of broadcasting it could reduce P losses

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 from 10 to 40 percent, and application rates of 50

2 percent."

3 A. Yes.

4 Q. What is your understanding of this BMP?

5 A. I watched this work being done by

6 colleagues. I wasn't involved in-- and I had some

7 discussion, informal discussions with them, and I

8 heard some of the conclusions they came up with, and

9 banding fertilizer, in this case, phosphorus

10 fertilizer, looked like it was a very good

11 practice.

12 It looked like utilizing that practice,

13 you could reduce your fertilizer application rate

14 without sacrificing yield, so it looked like it was

15 a viable BMP.

16 Q. Does that conclusion you have just

17 given, or that opinion, apply to the statement-- let

18 me rephrase that.

19 Do you have an opinion whether that

20 particular BMP could reduce phosphorus losses from

21 10 to 40 percent, and application rates of

22 fertilizer in the order of 50 percent?

23 A. I'm not familiar with phosphorus loss

24 data.

25 In talking to some of the researches,

JACK BESONER & ASSOCIATES

150 WEST FLAGLER STEET, MIAMI, FL 33130 (305) 371-1537

1 and some of the-- some of the people that do

2 research for some vegetable growing corporations, I

3 think that 50 percent application rate reduction is

4 realistic. It's somewhere near what they can do.

5 Q. Let's move on to the third BMP,

6 "Prevention of fertilizer spills and the direct

7 spreading of fertilizer into drainage ditches, could

8 reduce P losses by zero to 15 percent."

9 What is your understanding--

10 A. I think it's a very good BMP that should

11 be 100 percent implemented.

12 Q. That's your opinion?

13 A. Yes.

14 Q. How would you go about reducing

15 fertilizer spills, or how would a farmer go about

16 reducing fertilizer spills, if you were going to

17 recommend to him that--

18 A. What you are primarily concerned with

19 there is the education of the labor who is involved

20 in transferring the fertilizer, either from the

21 tractor-trailer, or whatever