1
1 Division of Administrative Hearings
2 Department of Administration, State of Florida
3 SUGAR CANE GROWERS COOPERATIVE)
OF FLORIDA; ROTH FARMS, INC.; )
4 and 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._____)
) VOLUME I
8 FLORIDA SUGAR CANE LEAGUE, )
INC.; UNITED STATES SUGAR )
9 CORPORATION; and NEW HOPE )
SOUTH, INC., )
10 Petitioners, )
V ) DOAH
11 SOUTH FLORIDA WATER MANAGEMENT) Case 92-3039
DISTRICT, an agency of the )
12 State of Florida, et al., )
_____________Respondents._____)
13 )
FLORIDA FRUIT AND VEGETABLE )
14 ASSOCIATION; LEWIS POPE FARMS;)
W.E. SCHLECHTER & SONS, INC., )
15 and HUNDLEY FARMS, INC., )
Petitioners, )
16 V ) DOAH
SOUTH FLORIDA WATER MANAGEMENT) Case 92-3040
17 DISTRICT, an agency of the )
State of Florida, et al., )
18 _____________Respondents._____)
19
Deposition of Kenneth Rutchey
20
Taken before Robin L. Merker, Court
21 Reporter and Notary Public in and for the State of
Florida at large, pursuant to notice of taking
22 deposition filed by the Petitioners in the above cause.
23 - - -
Monday, February 7, 1992
24 319 Clematis Street
West Palm Beach, Florida 33401
25 9:10 - 12:15 p.m.
2
1 APPEARANCES:
2 On behalf of the Petitioners Florida Sugar
Cane League, Inc., United States Sugar Corp,
3 and New Hope, Inc.:
4 Earl, Blank, Kavanaugh & Stotts
One Biscayne Tower
5 Suite 3636
Two South Biscayne Boulevard
6 Miami, Florida 33131
By: MARK KOBELINSKI, ESQUIRE
7
On behalf of the Petitioners Sugar Cane Growers
8 Cooperative, Roth Farms, Inc., and WEDGEWORTH
Farms, Inc.:
9
Hopping, Boyd, Green & Sams
10 123 South Calhoun Street
Tallahassee, Florida 32314
11 BY: WILLIAM H. GREEN, ESQUIRE and
CAROLYN S. RAEPPLE
12
On behalf of the Respondent SFWMD:
13
Popham, Haik, Schnobrich & Kaufman, Ltd.
14 100 Southeast 2nd Street
Miami, Florida 33131
15 BY: GREGORY M. CESARANO, ESQUIRE
16 On behalf of the Intervenor, United States of
America:
17
THOMAS A.W. FITZGERALD, ESQUIRE
18 Assistant United States Attorney
155 South Miami Avenue
19 Suite 600
Miami, Florida 33130-1693
20
ALSO PRESENT:
21
JOE B. BIRCH, Ph.D.
22 EDWARD DOWNING
MICHAEL SOUKUP
23 MICHAEL STORY
24
25
3
1 - - -
2 I N D E X
3 - - -
4 WITNESS: DIRECT CROSS REDIRECT RECROSS
5 Kenneth Rutchey
6 BY MR. KOBELINSKI: 5
BY MS. RAEPPLE: 226
7
- - -
8
E X H I B I T S
9
- - -
10 Rutchey Exb. No. 1 8
Development of an Everglades Vegetation Map
11 Using a SPOT Image and the Global Positioning System
12 Rutchey Exb. No. 2 33
WCA-2A Field Data Collection Sites for 30
13 classes 10-2-91 to 1-13-92
14 Rutchey Exb. No. 3 56
WCA-2A Tree Islands
15
Rutchey Exb. No. 4 67
16 WCA-2A Accuracy Assessment 3-23 to 4-24-92.
17 Rutchey Exb. No. 5 80
Laboratory Notebook
18
Rutchey Exb. No. 6 105
19 WCA 3S for SPOT 5-11-92
20 Rutchey Exb. No. 7 105
WCA 3N for SPOT 5-11-92
21
Rutchey Exb. No. 8 108
22 Inland Wetland Change Detection in the
Everglades Water Conservation Area 2A Using a Time
23 Series of Normalized Remotely Sensed Data
24 Rutchey Exb. No. 9 196
Holeyland file, Bates Nos. 1220441 through
25 1220572
4
1
Rutchey Exb. No. 10 228
2 Color Map of WCA-2A, using SPOT image 4-4-87
3 Rutchey Exb. No. 11 273
Satellite imagery as of 1-25-93
4
Rutchey Exb. No. 12 278
5 Resume of Ken Rutchey
6 Rutchey Exb. No. 13 298
Memorandum dated 11-5-92 from Ken Rutchey
7
Rutchey Exb. No. 14 316
8 Memorandum dated 3-30-1990 from Michael Maceina
9 Rutchey Exb. No. 15 354
Latitudes and longitudes, coordinates
10
Rutchey Exb. No. 16 355
11 Review of Remote Sensing activities by John
Jensen.
12
Rutchey Exb. No. 17 357
13 Phosphorus data
14 Rutchey Exb. No. 18 364
Memorandum from Ken Rutchey and Les Vilchek
15 dated 10-22-92
16 Rutchey Exb. No. 19 370
Memorandum from Ken Rutchey dated 7-29-91
17
Rutchey Exb. No. 20 370
18 Memorandum from Ken Rutchey dated 6-18-90
19 Rutchey Exb. No. 21 373
Memorandum from Ken Rutchey dated 10-30-89.
20
Rutchey Exb. No. 22 382
21 WCA-2A fire records
22 Rutchey Exb. No. 23 384
Draft page of Everglades SWIM Plan with
23 handwritten note on back.
24
25
5
1 P R O C E E D I N G S
2
3 - - -
4 Thereupon,
5 Kenneth Rutchey
6 being by the undersigned Notary Public first duly
7 sworn, was examined and testified as follows:
8 THE WITNESS: I do.
9 DIRECT (Kenneth Rutchey)
10 BY MR. KOBELINSKI:
11 Q. Good morning, Mr. Rutchey. My name is
12 Mark Kobelinski. Have you been deposed before?
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. You have, all right. Good. I think I
15 knew that.
16 And I think you're aware that a deposition
17 is a means by which people involved in litigation can
18 ask questions of individuals who may or may not have
19 facts dealing with the issues in the case under oath.
20 I'll be asking you a number of questions. I believe
21 one or another of the attorneys here will be asking you
22 some questions. I'd like you to answer to the best of
23 your ability as truthfully as possible. If you don't
24 understand a question, please let me know and I'll
25 attempt to rephrase it in a manner in which you can
6
1 understand. If you don't know the answer to a question
2 or don't remember, I don't know or I don't remember are
3 the best responses you can give.
4 If you do assume something, please let us
5 know. Otherwise we're going to go on our own
6 assumption that you are not assuming. If you feel
7 compelled to assume, please tell us.
8 Under those ground rules, you were served,
9 sir, I believe with a subpoena duces tecum?
10 A. Right.
11 Q. All right.
12 You were given a notice and, as I
13 understand it, you've gathered documents in response to
14 that?
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. You produced those all to us?
17 A. No.
18 Q. All right.
19 A. This morning I brought in, after reading
20 it further, a report. You might have this, you might
21 not. I don't think that was -- the C-51 study, you
22 said all publications that I've been involved in.
23 Q. Okay.
24 A. And this is another one that was by Dewey
25 Worth in the early '80's, work that he did in
7
1 documenting the vegetation, and I have basically all
2 the data for that report since Dewey has now left the
3 District.
4 Q. Great, all right.
5 Well, we'll get some copies of that later.
6 A. And the other item I was asked to provide
7 was the digital data also.
8 Q. Um-hum.
9 A. The techs and I haven't put that all
10 together yet.
11 Q. All right.
12 A. I'm working on that.
13 Q. Now I note that you have a document there
14 in front of you, titled Development of an Everglades
15 Vegetation Map Using a SPOT Image and the Global
16 Positioning System. Is that the final or most recent
17 copy of that particular paper?
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. All right.
20 And I know you did produce that; is that
21 correct?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. All right.
24 Well, why don't you give me few moments to
25 go through it. We weren't quite sure which was the
8
1 final version.
2 (Thereupon, a discussion was held off the
3 record.)
4 MR. KOBELINSKI: All right. We all set?
5 Why don't you mark that as 1?
6 (Thereupon, the document was marked
7 Rutchey Exb. No. 1 for Identification.)
8 BY MR. KOBELINSKI:
9 Q. Mr. Rutchey, I've handed you what we've
10 marked as Petitioner's Exhibit 1 to your deposition,
11 which is a document entitled Development of an
12 Everglades Vegetation Map Using a SPOT Image and the
13 Global Positioning System, dated September of 1992,
14 Bates No. 1220147 through 1220440. Would you look
15 through that and identify that for me, please, if you
16 can?
17 A. This is the work that Les Vilchek and I
18 did, looking at vegetation in the Everglades and using
19 multispectral satellite data to delineate the
20 vegetation.
21 Q. Okay.
22 And what portion of Everglades was that?
23 A. Water Conservation Area 2A.
24 Q. Okay.
25 When was this work done? When did you
9
1 start on this project?
2 A. I'd say initially right after the data was
3 acquired on 8-10-91.
4 Q. Okay.
5 And when did you finish this project?
6 A. I'd say approximately eight months after
7 the actual -- all the data was collected and then maybe
8 another four months the final report was done.
9 Q. So that was just about September '92 is
10 when you finished up with this?
11 A. Yeah, I'd say that was the last, you know,
12 the revised. You know, you get comments back and...
13 Q. What we've marked Exhibit 1 is the final
14 product from that study, or are there any additional or
15 subsequent drafts?
16 A. There was drafts prior to this, yes.
17 Q. Were there any drafts subsequent to, after
18 this?
19 A. No.
20 Q. Okay.
21 Who is Les Vilchek?
22 A. He's a co-worker, same level as I am,
23 working for South Florida Water Management.
24 Q. What does he do?
25 A. He's -- he does pretty much what I do. He
10
1 has a strong background in aerial photography
2 delineation, dealing with aerial photography. He
3 worked with the National Wetland Inventory before he
4 came to the District and basically learned the image
5 processing from me, the digital image processing and we
6 used his background in aerial interpretation pretty
7 extensively in this project.
8 Q. Thank you.
9 Prior to August of '91, did you have any
10 experience in using satellite imagery, showing
11 vegetation through satellite imagery?
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. Could you just briefly take me through
14 when you first started doing that actually through
15 today, what your experience has been?
16 A. Okay.
17 I'd say I started, I would say it was in
18 '87 when I first became interested in this method. I
19 basically had done a lot of research in the Everglades
20 prior to that using standard ground reconnaissance, you
21 know, going out in the field as a biologist and looking
22 at vegetation, put a transect out. Basically that's --
23 the results of that are in contained in this report
24 that Dewey Worth did. But we saw there was so much
25 more out there that we weren't covering, so we wanted
11
1 to move on to maybe looking at the area in its
2 entirety. And then initially we started just taking
3 photographs from helicopters, putting poles out in the
4 fields so we can basically tell distances, so that when
5 we delineate the vegetation we can come up with an
6 acreage of what things were that we were delineating
7 were or so -- were on the ground.
8 And so we then basically moved to
9 satellite data and Dewey, you have to give Dewey the
10 credit. He's the one that really headed us in that
11 direction. I just sort of, I guess, tagged along. But
12 it piqued my interest and I became very interested in
13 it. In fact, it became my niche at the District. And
14 at that time we had the I2S system, which is an image
15 processing system and I learned it and I did some
16 initial work. And basically at this point I was
17 getting a real education at the District learning the
18 software and different techniques and...
19 Q. Put an approximate period of time around
20 this.
21 A. I'd say '87 to '89.
22 Q. Okay.
23 A. I did a preliminary map of Water
24 Conservation Area 2A using a 1987 SPOT scene. And then
25 I started working on this -- this project, completed
12
1 this work. At this point I'm moving more now towards
2 using satellite imagery and aerial photography. I
3 consider all remotely sensed data or image processing
4 of data. That's it pretty well.
5 Q. Okay.
6 A. Sums it up.
7 Q. You say a 1987 SPOT vegetative map, was
8 that -- what area was that?
9 A. Water Conservation Area 2A.
10 Q. With regard to the photo surveys using
11 helicopters for use in vegetative mapping, what period
12 of time was that?
13 A. (No response.)
14 Q. I believe you said you used, did some
15 photo surveys using helicopters where you put posts in
16 or poles in to mark --
17 A. That was before any actual digital image
18 processing. That was real early like, I'd say, in the
19 '81 through '85.
20 Q. Okay.
21 Do you recall what areas you did using
22 that method?
23 A. Basically it was sawgrass areas, tree
24 islands and slough areas.
25 Q. Okay.
13
1 Was that in any of the Conservation Areas?
2 A. Water Conservation Area 2A.
3 Q. Did you cover the entire Conservation
4 Area?
5 A. No.
6 Q. Do you still have the results of those
7 surveillances or not?
8 A. Some of it.
9 Q. Did you publish a report or put out any
10 type of report based on that?
11 A. Basically all that work is probably in
12 here.
13 Q. Okay.
14 A. We collected a lot of data and we put this
15 report together. We didn't use all the data. We used,
16 you know, we collected a lot of data, so it was...
17 Q. Okay.
18 Going then towards this report which we
19 marked as Exhibit 1, if you could walk me through the
20 process.
21 And I believe, just for the record, the
22 copy that has been marked as Exhibit 1, I do not
23 believe has color photos on the back of it. I know
24 that you have another copy of that here -- is that a
25 fact, Mr. Rutchey --
14
1 A. Correct.
2 Q. -- of this report which does have color
3 photos?
4 A. (Shakes head up and down.)
5 Q. Feel free if, during the deposition you
6 need to refer to color photos as opposed to those black
7 and white photocopies to do so. We will then attach a
8 corrected one with the color photos to the deposition
9 itself.
10 If you could literally, from the point
11 where you became involved, walk me through the steps it
12 took to get to this final report, and if I need a
13 little more detail I'll ask you. Otherwise --
14 A. Okay.
15 Q. When did you -- I assume the first part of
16 that was selecting a -- well, you tell me. Step Number
17 1, when did you get the assignment?
18 A. Well, we got the imagery that was
19 collected on August 10, 1991 from SPOT data
20 multispectral imagery.
21 Initially the first thing we do is went
22 out and got ground truth information to rectify the
23 imagery.
24 Q. Before you get to that point, how was the
25 August SPOT imagery selected?
15
1 A. Basically the overriding consideration was
2 availability. In the Everglades we don't have a lot of
3 clear days where we have a satellite where it's totally
4 cloud free.
5 Q. Um-hum.
6 A. So that was why that one was selected.
7 Q. Okay.
8 Who actually made the selection of the
9 August 10, '91 SPOT imagery?
10 A. I did.
11 Q. Okay.
12 And was this -- was SPOT imagery the only
13 satellite imagery that you considered at this point?
14 A. No, no. We looked at LandSat too. Again
15 the overriding consideration though was a scene that
16 was totally cloud free for that area.
17 Q. Okay.
18 A. And there was some other work done using
19 LandSat in the Everglades, and they compared it to
20 SPOT, and they showed that SPOT was the better way of
21 looking at the vegetation and delineating.
22 Q. Okay.
23 Who had done this LandSat work and
24 compared it to SPOT?
25 A. Terry Gilbert of Game and Fish.
16
1 Q. Did you consult with Gilbert with regard
2 to selecting the SPOT imagery?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. Had you worked with the LandSat before?
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. And did you concur with Mr. Gilbert's
7 opinion that SPOT would be a better imagery to use as
8 opposed to LandSat?
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. Okay.
11 What was the specific purpose or goal at
12 this point in time of the assignment? What were you
13 attempting to do?
14 A. Use satellite imagery to delineate the
15 vegetation in Water Conservation Area 2A.
16 Q. Any particular vegetation types or
17 literally all the vegetation you could?
18 A. All the vegetation we possibly could.
19 There was no emphasis on any specific species.
20 Q. Okay.
21 And did you select 2A as the area of study
22 or was that just, again, part of the assignment?
23 A. Selected it. Because that's where I had
24 worked since my beginning of employment with South
25 Florida Water Management District, and that area also
17
1 has had the most work done in it in previous.
2 Q. Okay.
3 Was the assignment literally just to map
4 any area within the Water Conservation Areas, open area
5 selection? How was the assignment developed?
6 A. Basically just we mapped Water
7 Conservation Area 2A.
8 Q. I'm just curious whether or not the
9 assignment was we need to start doing a vegetative
10 mapping, and you said fine, I'd like to do 2A because
11 that's what I'm most familiar with. How was that
12 assignment developed?
13 A. I would say that the direction at that
14 point came from Dewey Worth to start off doing Water
15 Conservation Area 2A.
16 Q. Okay. All right.
17 Did you review various SPOT imagery for 2A
18 and then select August 10 from a number of options or
19 was August 10 essentially the one that was proposed to
20 you?
21 A. Again, there wasn't a whole lot available
22 due to cloud cover. And it's -- I didn't want to go
23 back to a scene that was collected earlier because then
24 it makes it hard to ground truth. So I had to wait for
25 a scene to become available and then start working on
18
1 it.
2 Q. Okay. All right.
3 In what format did you receive the August
4 10 SPOT imagery data?
5 A. In digital format.
6 Q. Did you still have those digital files?
7 A. Yes.
8 Q. Unaltered, unmodified?
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. Okay.
11 Once you received the digital files for
12 the '80 -- excuse me -- 8-10-91 SPOT imagery, what did
13 you do next?
14 A. I went out, collected ground truth data
15 for rectification of the imagery. We collected 20
16 ground control points. That was the first thing we
17 did. Then we cut the actual area out that we were
18 interested in, which was Water Conservation Area 2A,
19 out of the imagery.
20 Q. Okay.
21 So let me -- first, after getting the
22 data, I assume you load it on to a computer, then went
23 up to selected 20 sites to ground truth --
24 A. To ground truth for rectification
25 purposes.
19
1 Q. And what does ground truthing for
2 rectification purposes mean?
3 A. When you get the data it's not to any real
4 world map projection. So we wanted to get it into a
5 real world map projection using real world ground truth
6 information.
7 Q. Now in other words, when you get it, it
8 doesn't have the boundary of 2A drawn on it; is that
9 right? Is that --
10 A. No. The way you get a boundary is to cut
11 the imagery from the satellite, original satellite
12 data. This rectification is so that when you look at
13 an area and -- you know where the location is at.
14 Q. Okay.
15 A. You don't know that when you first get it.
16 You have to establish ground controls and rectify it.
17 Q. So what are the types of sites you use for
18 that purpose?
19 A. Some of the fish camps within the area and
20 then points all the way around the outside perimeter.
21 Q. That including the structures?
22 A. I believe so.
23 Q. And did you do the 20 sites, inspection of
24 the 20 sites for ground truthing?
25 A. Les Vilchek and myself.
20
1 Q. Approximately how long did that take?
2 A. I would say a day to two days to collect
3 the information.
4 Q. Okay.
5 What's the next step?
6 A. Okay.
7 Initially we took the raw data and did an
8 unsupervised classification and we chose 30 clusters.
9 We did the unsupervised classification within the 30
10 clusters. We tried to find areas that we can visit in
11 the field. And this was all based on the accuracy of
12 the GPS. So basically the imagery was initially
13 rectified to .4 RMS, root means square, it means that
14 pixel within it is accurate to approximately eight
15 meters.
16 Q. With regard to this process, how many
17 classes did you -- did the computer or did you collect?
18 A. 30 clusters.
19 Q. 30 clusters, all right.
20 Let me ask you this, perhaps as we go
21 through, for the sake of -- we received a fair number
22 of documents, a lot of which are, as you know, lists of
23 data. With regard to Step 1, which was selecting the
24 August 10, 91 imagery, did you produce any documents
25 specifically related to that fact?
21
1 I'm just trying to organize the documents
2 that you produced.
3 A. Could you repeat that question?
4 Q. You've produced to us about a foot and a
5 half of documents in the last few days.
6 A. Okay.
7 Q. We're trying to order them to understand
8 exactly what they are and identify them. Perhaps it
9 might be easiest to see which of those documents fit in
10 a particular project you were doing and in what steps.
11 I'm asking you, did you produce any documents with
12 regard to your selection of the August 10, 91 SPOT
13 imagery?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. Okay.
16 What documents would have you produced in
17 regard to that?
18 A. If I remember, all -- I think you have all
19 the GPS location points that were used in the
20 rectification process, in the ground truthing and in
21 the your analysis of the mapping project.
22 Q. Okay.
23 I understand we probably have all the
24 documents. Our problem is trying to figure out which
25 documents are for what task. Are there specific
22
1 documents with relation to your selection of the August
2 10, '91 SPOT imagery?
3 A. I don't think so.
4 Q. With regard to your selecting 20 sites for
5 ground truthing and for rectification purposes, were
6 there any documents specifically related to that task
7 that you've produced to us?
8 A. I believe so.
9 Q. What would those look like?
10 A. Well, I identify them based on the folder
11 that I have them in.
12 Q. Well, we received those things clipped or
13 rubber banded together. There's the first batch,
14 perhaps if you went through that and can identify the
15 20 sites or the documents related to the 20 sites for
16 ground truthing.
17 While you're doing that, let me ask a
18 quick question. Are you aware that we received your
19 documents in two batches?
20 A. No.
21 Q. Okay.
22 So that wouldn't help, telling you I
23 received it in Batch 1 or Batch 2.
24 (Thereupon, a discussion was held off the
25 record.)
23
1 BY MR. KOBELINSKI:
2 Q. It's not there. Okay. This is another
3 set of documents we received.
4 A. I don't see them.
5 Q. Okay. At the break we can take a closer
6 look at that.
7 Moving on to the next step that you
8 described to me as taking the raw data and looking at
9 the computer, doing an unsupervised classification,
10 would there be any specific documents generated from
11 that? Would the computer generate a particular file
12 or --
13 A. I believe all it's all digital. I don't
14 think there's any hard copy of that.
15 Q. Okay.
16 Now, do I understand correctly that the
17 computer collected more than 30 classifications, but
18 ultimately narrowed it down to 30?
19 A. No.
20 Q. How does that work?
21 A. I chose 30.
22 Q. Oh, you essentially told the computer I
23 want 30 classifications, go through and find them?
24 A. I want 30 clusters to be my final number
25 of classes.
24
1 Q. Okay. Well, you have to excuse me, I'm --
2 the difficulty is you have someone who is not expert in
3 your field deposing an expert in your field.
4 When it's an unsupervised classification
5 by the computer, does that mean the computer just goes
6 through and selects what it considers to be vegetation
7 of the same class or cluster?
8 A. Basically it looks at the band information
9 of the satellite data and clusters it out based on
10 means, basically it's a standard deviation, into 30
11 separate clusters.
12 Q. But you're the one that first plugs in to
13 the computer and tells it I want 30 to start with?
14 A. Right.
15 Q. So you could have done 40 and it would
16 have given you 40?
17 A. That's correct.
18 Q. Or you could have given it one and it
19 could have -- would have given you the entire map I
20 guess; is that essentially correct?
21 A. Yes, I think that's probably what would
22 happen.
23 Q. Did you write any memos or anything
24 related to that particular document?
25 A. Not to my knowledge.
25
1 Q. Okay.
2 After you received then the computer
3 classification of 30 clusters -- would that be the
4 appropriate term?
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. Okay. 30 clusters.
7 -- what was the next step you did?
8 A. Okay.
9 Basically, we tried to go out in the field
10 and identify what those clusters were.
11 Q. Okay.
12 How did you go about doing that?
13 A. We used GPS, Global Positioning System,
14 and tried to pick a minimum of five points in each one
15 of these clusters, geographically locate it throughout
16 the area. And that's what we used for trying to
17 determine those 30 clusters.
18 Q. Okay.
19 Just so I understand how you went about
20 determining the 30 clusters, did you print out a map?
21 Was there a map printed out of it showing the 30
22 clusters, where they were?
23 A. That's correct.
24 Q. All right.
25 Do you still have a copy of that map?
26
1 A. It's digital.
2 Q. All right.
3 Did you allow the computer to select the
4 sites where you would go out and ground truth or
5 determine what clusters represented or did you do it
6 yourself?
7 A. Did it myself.
8 Q. Okay.
9 Do you have any type of map or -- showing
10 where those sites were that you visited for the
11 determination of classes?
12 A. Yes. I -- there might be a hard copy, I
13 can't remember. But there's definitely a digital copy.
14 Q. Okay.
15 And in the digital copy, would it have the
16 coordinates of where you were going?
17 A. That's correct.
18 Q. Okay.
19 How did you go about selecting sites you'd
20 visit?
21 A. It was based on whether we were able to
22 accurately navigate to them use GPS technology. There
23 was some inaccuracy in the actual GPS and some
24 inaccuracy in the rectification process of the
25 satellite imagery. So basically we determined that we
27
1 had to have a minimum of 3 by 3 pixel cluster in order
2 to accurately navigate to. In most cases we prefer to
3 have bigger than that.
4 Q. Now with a 3 by 3, you're talking about,
5 what is that, 60 meters squared?
6 A. 60 meters on side. 60 by 60 by 60 by 60.
7 Q. All right.
8 And how many sites did you go to identify
9 the clusters?
10 A. 129.
11 Q. All right.
12 And that was yourself who picked the 129
13 sites?
14 A. I would say I picked them along with Les
15 Vilchek.
16 Q. Okay. All right.
17 What was the next step then, visiting the
18 sites?
19 A. We visited the sites and we wrote down
20 what we saw there and came back and wanted to see if
21 the cluster was accurate and it -- it had broken it out
22 into 30 clusters, whether they were all unique. And at
23 this point we determined they weren't unique, that
24 there was real heterogeneity with a number of clusters.
25 Q. Now prior to the visitation to the site,
28
1 how did you get to the site?
2 A. Either by air boat or helicopter.
3 Q. Okay.
4 And you did that using GPS, I believe you
5 mentioned?
6 A. That's correct.
7 Q. Okay.
8 Once you got to the site, I believe you
9 stated you identified the vegetation?
10 A. That's correct.
11 Q. What would you do, check a site in the
12 center of the pixel, in the center of the 9 square or 9
13 pixels?
14 A. Approximately.
15 Q. Then how would you go about identifying
16 what was there?
17 Who would do that? Let's start with that.
18 A. We stuck with one person so that we
19 wouldn't -- it's just better if you do it with one
20 person than have a number of people working on that
21 aspect of it, because he stays consistent throughout
22 the process.
23 Q. Okay.
24 A. And Les Vilchek was that person.
25 Q. Okay. All right.
29
1 Once you arrived at a site, where would he
2 look to make the identification?
3 A. If we were in a helicopter he would look
4 down at the site, because you want to try to determine
5 what the satellite was seeing. If you were on an air
6 boat, we have cages on the air boat, we got on top of
7 the cage and looked basically down so we can see was it
8 sparse or moderate or dense or what the prevailing
9 vegetation signature was for that area.
10 Q. Okay.
11 With regard to the helicopter, were you
12 hovering, trying to hover at any particular level or...
13 A. Yeah, I'd say it was approximately 50
14 feet.
15 Q. Okay.
16 A. 25 feet.
17 Q. All right.
18 You now -- as I understand it, you are in
19 the approximate, what you've identified as being in the
20 approximate center of a 9 pixel square, each pixel
21 being 20 meters by 20 meters. Was Les attempting to
22 identify the community in all 9 pixels or was he trying
23 to look at what he considered to be the boundary of
24 that center pixel?
25 A. I would say he was looking at a 20 meter
30
1 by 20 meter area.
2 Q. Was that something you discussed with him
3 so you know that or is that just your --
4 A. No, we discussed that.
5 Q. Okay.
6 Now at -- during this trip would you also
7 observe and take any notes if, for instance, if there's
8 a change in the type of vegetation surrounding -- from
9 what you've identified as the center pixel?
10 A. I believe he did that, yes.
11 Q. Now were there written documents? Were
12 there written observations from this trip?
13 A. I believe there is, yeah. I think he --
14 they might be included here somewhere.
15 Q. But he made field notes of every, all 129
16 visits?
17 A. I believe so, yeah.
18 Q. Okay.
19 Was he keeping the field notes or were
20 you?
21 A. He kept them pretty much.
22 Q. Okay.
23 Did you make any separate observations or
24 field notes of any sort?
25 A. No. I was basically the GPS man. I
31
1 also -- I put it in in navigating to points and making
2 sure we got to the right place.
3 Q. Okay.
4 Now, is it your belief that the field
5 notes from these site visits were included in the
6 documents that were produced to us?
7 A. I think so, but I'm not positive.
8 Q. Okay.
9 Can we go through and again identify those
10 so we can start segmenting out what these documents
11 are? If it's easier, as I said, take all the rubber
12 bands off.
13 (Thereupon, a discussion was held off the
14 record.)
15 THE WITNESS: This is in digital form. I
16 don't see the --
17 BY MR. KOBELINSKI:
18 Q. Let's set that aside for the moment.
19 Everything that's -- everything you have that relates
20 to the -- is it just that one document you have in your
21 hand or is there anything underneath that also?
22 A. Well, this actually gives you the
23 coordinate and what we saw there. I'll keep looking
24 through.
25 Q. Well, I'd like to see if we do have field
32
1 notes. Let's -- why don't we set that aside. I'll
2 identify that for the record in a moment. But if
3 there's anything else related to that visit to the 129
4 sites in the field and the identification of
5 vegetation.
6 A. I think this pertains to that too. I
7 think these are it. We actually made sheets up, field
8 inspection sheets. I think this is it.
9 Q. All right. Let me try find these here.
10 MR. CESERANO: You want the number?
11 MR. KOBELINSKI: Yes.
12 MR. CESARANO: 1202944.
13 THE WITNESS: No, this, I think, was for
14 ground truthing.
15 BY MR. KOBELINSKI:
16 Q. Why don't we put -- this is yours, and I
17 think you turned some stuff over here. I just want to
18 make sure.
19 MR. CESARANO: Pardon me, let me look at
20 this for a moment if I could.
21 MR. KOBELINSKI: All right. What does
22 that start with?
23 MR. CESARANO: 1203.
24 MR. KOBELINSKI: All right. And I think
25 we'll just mark this as a large composite
33
1 exhibit.
2 (Thereupon, the document was marked
3 Rutchey Exb. No. 2 for Identification.)
4 BY MR. KOBELINSKI:
5 Q. Mr. Rutchey, did you -- were there any
6 photos taken during the three site visits, the 129
7 sites?
8 A. I think we did do it for this one, I'm not
9 sure.
10 Q. Who would have those photos?
11 A. I'd have to look in my slides for that,
12 because we have gone there on and off on different
13 things.
14 Q. Would they be in just slide form or would
15 you also have photos, do you know?
16 A. They'd be slides.
17 Q. Okay.
18 Who would have taken the -- snapped the
19 photo or slide or whatever, done the camera work?
20 A. Yeah, I -- if I recall, I don't think we
21 did it for this particular project, we didn't take
22 pictures. I'm not sure.
23 Q. Okay.
24 A. I'd have to look.
25 Q. All right.
34
1 Mr. Rutchey, I'm showing you a composite
2 exhibit that we've marked as No. 2. There's actually a
3 number of different portions to it, but the first page
4 appears to be a photocopy of a possibly a file folder
5 which reads WCA-2A field data collection sites for 30
6 classes, 10-2-91 through 1-13-92. And all these
7 documents bear consecutive Bates numbers in the lower
8 right-hand corner, 1202881 all the way through 1203072.
9 Some of these are stapled together.
10 I'd ask you first of all, is this a -- one
11 entire file that you keep, this particular file?
12 A. It's not an entire file, it's a number of
13 different files.
14 Q. Perhaps -- because it was produced to us
15 in this consecutive order, I'd like you to go through
16 and perhaps see if you can identify each set, the first
17 portion of which is stapled together at 1202882. Do
18 you know what that particular document relates to?
19 A. This is the actual data that I sent to
20 John Jensen of the 30 ground truth sites and their
21 coordinate location.
22 Q. And it's actually referring to 129 sites?
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. Okay.
25 Now -- so this does relate to this initial
35
1 site identification of the 129 sites and the classes
2 that are listed there in this document. Where did you
3 get that information?
4 A. These are the classes that we determined
5 from looking during our aerial reconnaissance is the
6 site locations.
7 Q. Okay.
8 Just going through this top page here,
9 1202882, the first column there are a number of
10 numbers. What would that indicate?
11 A. Just basically it was a way of telling the
12 different ones apart, 1 through 129.
13 Q. So that's just essentially the numbers
14 that, for instance that first page we're on, 61, 63,
15 80, these are just the various sites; is that correct?
16 A. Um-hum.
17 Q. All right.
18 The next one is labeled class, I believe
19 you just stated that classification, you identified it
20 based upon your observations; is that correct?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. I'm still on Page 1202882.
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. The next has UTM.
25 A. That's correct.
36
1 Q. What is that UTM, coordinate?
2 A. Universal Transverse Mercator
3 Q. That's your GPS coordinates there?
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. All right.
6 Next document that, at least it's stapled
7 together, bears Bates No. 2202885 through 887. And
8 could you -- do you know what this document reflects?
9 A. I'm going to tell you these don't look
10 like they're in order to me. And not to have my
11 folders here, my original stuff, I'm guessing basically
12 what I'm seeing here.
13 Q. All right.
14 Well, to the best of your ability do you
15 do you recognize what this could be?
16 A. It's basically -- it's classes grouped
17 together and their location, such as Class 1 is -- you
18 see all together and Class 2 and so on, and so on to
19 30.
20 Q. This is based upon the original 129 sites?
21 A. I believe so.
22 Q. Okay.
23 And the first column there says point old,
24 what does that mean?
25 A. I'm going to have to go back. We had two
37
1 sites, point old and -- well, not point old. And we
2 had new and old -- not new. It was basically two
3 different trips. We combined them together in the
4 final documents or data set.
5 Q. When you say two different trips, is this
6 all part of identification of the 129 sites where the
7 vegetation was?
8 A. Yes. Two different trips that basically
9 it might have been more than two trips, but at one
10 point in time we had one data set and then we had
11 another data set, then we combined them, the old data
12 set, old and new date set.
13 Q. Good classifications. All right.
14 Well, let me back up a moment. How long
15 did it take you to visit all 129 sites?
16 A. I think we did it over a period of two or
17 three months.
18 Q. Okay.
19 And what months would those be?
20 A. I think it says right here on the
21 beginning of Exhibit 2, 10-2-91 to 1 -- it look likes
22 13-92.
23 Q. Okay.
24 And did you go to all these sites?
25 A. Yes.
†⁏歡礮ഊഊ††††㈴†††††††††䅮搠摩搠祯甠杯⁴漠慬氠瑨敳攠獩瑥猿ഊഊ††††㈵††††††䄮††奥献ഊ††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††㌸ഊഊ††††‱††††††儮††䤠扥汩敶
38
1 Q. I believe you said Les Vilchek did all the
2 identification. He also obviously went too.
3 A. Right.
4 Q. Did anybody else participate in the site
5 identification trips?
6 A. No.
7 Q. Approximately how many trips did it take?
8 A. Without having my folders, I don't recall.
9 Q. Okay.
10 And did you visit certain sites more than
11 once?
12 A. I don't think so.
13 Q. Okay.
14 I was just trying to understand why there
15 were two different data sets that you then merged.
16 A. I'm going to have to go back and look. I
17 remember that we collected one set and then we
18 collected another set, not repeating, two different
19 sets. We called one old and one new, and then we
20 combined it. That's the best of my knowledge, without
21 going back to my notes.
22 Q. All right.
23 Are those notes that you've produced to
24 us?
25 A. No, they're in -- it's basically in my --
39
1 yeah, they're probably here. But it's all -- not like
2 in my folders.
3 Q. Okay.
4 So you had field notes then from this
5 aspect of the study?
6 A. Well, those were already part of that.
7 Q. We're coming up on those.
8 A. Right.
9 Q. Okay.
10 Let's move on to the next document which
11 is Bates No. 120288 through 120291. And this likewise
12 has point new. My question would be that in the
13 approximately fourth column there, a number of data
14 points have 5 by 5 or 5 X 5. What does that refer to?
15 A. I believe that was if it had 5 by 5 pixels
16 or more, instead of a 3 by 3 pixel.
17 Q. Okay. All right.
18 Moving on then to next stapled portion of
19 this, which bears Bates No. 1202892 through 1202898,
20 and what would this relate to?
21 A. These are all out of the software called
22 PFINDER, and it's our software that we use to
23 differentially correct our field GPS data. This is the
24 output.
25 Q. Okay.
40
1 This is output from the unit you had out
2 in the field?
3 A. I'm not sure without having my folders in
4 front of me. I mean it's either output from the unit
5 in the field or it's the output after it's been
6 differentially corrected.
7 Q. All right. Let me just explore that for a
8 moment.
9 You have a GPS unit and it takes you to a
10 spot; is that correct?
11 A. That's correct.
12 Q. All right.
13 What are you -- how do you get to a spot
14 with a GPS unit?
15 A. You can enter way points into the GPS
16 unit, basically navigation points. You can navigate to
17 the point. The military's been jamming GPS signals
18 since the Gulf incident, so about the worse accuracy is
19 about a hundred meters. But there's -- we've found
20 that you can take that data set back to your office,
21 you have a community base station set up collecting GPS
22 data out of a known location that's been surveyed to
23 less than one centimeter. You can differentially
24 correct the recovery unit data to get an accurate
25 location of where you really were.
41
1 Q. Okay.
2 The unit itself, the recovery unit as you
3 called it, records then time and place, it was --
4 A. It records the time and the position.
5 Q. Okay.
6 Is that where you just press a button and
7 it does that for you, or how does it do it?
8 A. Pretty much press a button.
9 Q. So every time you got a spot that Les
10 would do a site identification you would press a
11 button, it would record the time and coordinates?
12 A. Right. We took a number of coordinates at
13 each place that we stopped, because that gives you
14 better accuracy the more you can average the data. And
15 basically we went to known benchmarks during our field
16 trips that we found, identified and checked the unit to
17 see how accurate we really were getting. And accuracy
18 ranged from three to seven meters.
19 Q. Okay.
20 That was during all your visits to the 129
21 sites?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. Okay.
24 (Thereupon, a discussion was held off the
25 record.)
42
1 BY MR. KOBELINSKI:
2 Q. The next document is Bates No. 1202899
3 through 1202904.
4 Can you identify what that document is?
5 A. Again, this is output from the PFINDER
6 software for GPS, PFINDER software.
7 It looks like we can take, for instance,
8 the first page, Site No. 61, these are all the points
9 that were collected at that site. And then this is
10 like until -- before we actually average it and get
11 then a final number.
12 Q. Okay.
13 Are these -- looking at 61, you have
14 approximately 10 readings there. I didn't count it, is
15 that about right?
16 A. Yeah.
17 Q. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Yeah I think it's about
18 10. Is that all from the same holding spot or did you
19 actually move around to get those?
20 A. No, same spot.
21 Q. Okay. All right.
22 And then going to the next document
23 1202905 through 909, what would this be?
24 A. Again, this is output from the GPS PFINDER
25 software.
43
1 Q. Okay.
2 Just drawing your attention to the
3 leftmost column where it says text, and following
4 through, is that an identification of some sort?
5 A. In this case, not on that page, it
6 represents the site number.
7 Q. And the following pages?
8 A. Bug in the program. We were able to
9 overcome that bug by looking at the time in the second
10 column to determine where we were.
11 Q. All right.
12 In next document, 1202910 through 913,
13 what is that?
14 A. GPS PFINDER output.
15 Q. Okay.
16 Would that hold true likewise for the next
17 document, 1202914 through 2920?
18 A. That's correct.
19 Q. Okay.
20 And next documents 1202921 through 927?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. Okay.
23 And then drawing your attention to the
24 next four documents bearing Bates numbers 1202928
25 through 936, what are these documents?
44
1 A. PFINDER GPS data output.
2 Q. Okay.
3 And looking at 1202937 there's handwriting
4 on there, it says this starts quote the new data set
5 quote. Now does that indicate that the new data set
6 essentially starts on December 3, '91 and went only
7 after that period? Is that how you'd read this?
8 A. Yeah, I'd say that's a fair statement.
9 Q. Does this help you recall as to why there
10 were two data sets?
11 A. No.
12 Q. On this sheet, this 1202937, there's
13 handwriting on here in a couple of places, it says
14 miss. What does that refer to?
15 A. I don't recall.
16 Q. Okay.
17 Whose handwriting is that; do you
18 recognize it?
19 A. It looks like mine.
20 Q. Drawing your attention to 1202939, the
21 document goes through 940, the leftmost column in
22 handwriting, what are these, the handwriting identified
23 as 96, 104, 54 as I'm going through?
24 A. I think this means -- dealing with the
25 accuracy of GPS being a hundred meters, that when we
45
1 actually went to a site that we thought was that
2 cluster, so the unit was off a hundred meters, it threw
3 us outside the cluster when we went back and checked
4 it. So we missed a cluster. So we couldn't use the
5 ground truth statement, because we weren't at that
6 location. That's what miss means, we missed.
7 Q. Okay. All right. Fair enough.
8 Well, just look at 1202939, just so I
9 understand your first eight readings, are those all the
10 same site or are those different sites?
11 A. I would say they're different sites.
12 Q. Each of these represents a different site?
13 A. Um-hum.
14 Q. All right.
15 And then quickly finishing up the
16 following two documents, 1202941 through 943, these are
17 likewise GPS documents; is that right?
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. Okay.
20 What would do you when you missed a site,
21 would you go back on a different day?
22 A. We would try to attempt to go back to it.
23 Q. Did you ultimately locate all 129 sites to
24 your satisfaction?
25 A. Initially there were more sites, there
46
1 were -- we just never could get to them. They -- some
2 of the clusters broke out to just 3 by 3 pixels, and if
3 they were jamming for a hundred meters we never found
4 that site. We couldn't include it.
5 Q. Of the 129 original sites that you set out
6 to do, how many did you ultimately get to?
7 A. No, there was more than 129. Initially
8 there was 150.
9 Q. Oh, I see.
10 And do I understand correctly then that
11 you were able to get to a hundred -- get to 129 of the
12 150?
13 A. Right.
14 Q. Okay. All right.
15 Then looking at Bates Nos. 1202944 through
16 1203016, the first page of which has -- states SFWMD
17 Environmental Sciences Digital Mapping Field Inspection
18 Sheet, what are these documents, sir?
19 A. These are the ground truth data, what we
20 saw there at the site depicting the vegetation.
21 Q. Okay.
22 And who kept these, who prepared these
23 documents?
24 A. Les Vilchek.
25 Q. And he prepared these out in the field?
47
1 A. No.
2 Q. Okay.
3 How would he record what he was seeing out
4 in the field?
5 A. On a piece of notebook paper or whatever,
6 then he came back in, he transcribed them to here.
7 Q. Okay.
8 Does he still retain his field book or his
9 field notes themselves?
10 A. I'm not sure. I sort of doubt it.
11 Those things, especially in your air boat,
12 they get all smudged up and get wet, so that's why we
13 did this.
14 Q. Now under a vegetation type, for instance
15 on the first page you have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,
16 10, 11 categories, how are the 11 categories selected?
17 A. Those are some of the major things that we
18 thought were out there initially, so to make it easier
19 so we don't have write them down every time we went to
20 a site, we made a list.
21 Q. Okay. All right.
22 And I notice -- I draw your attention to
23 documents in the next rubber band set, which is 1203017
24 through 1273072. What are these documents?
25 A. The same. Ground truth information.
48
1 Q. All right.
2 And that is all -- this ground truthing
3 relates to the original visitation of the approximate
4 129 sites; is that correct?
5 A. I believe so.
6 Q. All right.
7 Are there any other documents then that
8 would relate to this portion or this task in the
9 project?
10 A. Just the digital data.
11 Q. Okay.
12 Once you received these field notes or the
13 field inspection sheets, what would do you with them?
14 A. Basically we went to each of the clusters
15 to see if they had clustered out uniquely, and we found
16 that wasn't the case, that a lot of them exhibited
17 heterogeneity within a single cluster within -- based
18 on our field reconnaissance.
19 Q. Okay.
20 Who did that work?
21 A. I did that work.
22 Q. What was the type of recovery unit you
23 used for the GPS?
24 A. A PathFinder Basic.
25 Q. All right.
49
1 You've done all the field work, you have
2 all these field notes, you come back, what's the next
3 step in the process?
4 A. Well, once we determined that everything
5 just didn't cluster out the way we had hoped, we used
6 that data set to do a supervised classification.
7 Q. All right.
8 How did you go about doing that?
9 A. It's basically the computer does -- they
10 do -- you feed it the ground truth information and run
11 a supervised classification and you look at the
12 results, see if they mean anything, see if you have
13 unique spectral signatures for the final data. And we
14 determined that, yeah, we came up with initially 19
15 unique signatures based on that kind of ground truth
16 information. And we used those, initially we saw some
17 problem areas and we attacked those and came up with
18 one additional class.
19 Q. What was the additional class?
20 A. Periphyton.
21 Q. All right.
22 Now with supervised classification, a
23 little more detail there. Did you select 19 classes
24 based upon your review of field notes and make a
25 determination there were actually 19 identifiable
50
1 classifications out there, or did the computer then
2 select 19?
3 A. No, it's based on supervised, based on
4 ground truth data.
5 Q. Okay.
6 So you took the data from your visits to
7 the 129 sites?
8 A. Um-hum.
9 Q. You yourself came up with 19 classes from
10 that?
11 A. Right.
12 Q. Okay.
13 Then you tell -- identify them to the
14 computer, the computer reruns the digital data to see
15 where it finds those classes?
16 A. Based on the spectral signature of those
17 data sites, basically the band information within those
18 areas. It's used in the supervised classification to
19 delineate based on these statistics.
20 Q. Okay.
21 Is this something you were doing or Les
22 was doing?
23 A. I was doing.
24 Q. All right.
25 Are there any documents related to that
51
1 particular activity?
2 A. Hard copy, no. Digitally, yes.
3 Q. What would have you digitally related to
4 this?
5 A. Well, we have all the seed locations for
6 the ground truth information. And basically all the
7 steps from there to the final supervised
8 classification, the output maps.
9 Q. Okay.
10 You didn't make hard copies of the maps
11 though, is that you're saying?
12 A. No. Well, I did make hard copies of --
13 not hard copies, no, no, I didn't. Just digital.
14 Q. Okay.
15 What was the next step?
16 A. Well the two problem areas, as I said, was
17 one was sawgrass/cattail sparse class, we knew from
18 aerial photography that we had a lot of, what we were
19 seeing in the southern end was periphyton that was
20 coming up as sawgrass/cattail sparse, so we wanted to
21 see if we can break that out. So we actually took that
22 class out of the supervised classification and ran an
23 unsupervised classification on that and broke it out
24 into, I believe it was five new spectral classes. We
25 look at each individually, looked at each of those
52
1 class individually and determined that we could break
2 out the periphyton from the sawgrass/cattail sparse
3 class. And then we came up with one additional class,
4 periphyton in the southern region.
5 Q. Okay.
6 I believe you said you knew from aerial
7 photography that the sawgrass/cattail part showing up
8 in the southern end was actually periphyton.
9 A. Um-hum.
10 Q. That aerial photography you were reviewing
11 as part of this particular project?
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. Okay.
14 What aerial photography were you using?
15 A. We had an area flown approximately at the
16 same time by Southern Resource Mapping at 1:24,000
17 scale, color infrared.
18 Q. That was by who?
19 A. Southern Resource Mapping.
20 Q. Now you're talking about the area, you're
21 talking about all of WCA-2A?
22 A. That's co