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