** 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 RUDI VYHNANEK TAKEN ON BEHALF OF THE PLAINTIFF *** DATE: August 28, 1990 PROFESSIONAL REPORTING SERVICE Commerce Center 324 Datura Street, Suite 303 West Palm Beach, Florida 33401 (407) 659-4046 ** 2 INDEX August 28, 1990 DIRECT CROSS REDIRECT RECROSS RUDI VYHNANEK By Ms. Beverly Nash 5 By Mr. Joe Richards 18 ** 3 The deposition of Rudi Vyhnanek, 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 11:30 o'clock a.m., on August 28, 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 Ray Roberts ** 5 THEREUPON, RUDI VYHNANEK being by me first duly sworn to tell the whole truth, as hereinafter certified, testified as follows: DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MS. NASH: Q. Mr. Vyhnanek, I'm Beverly Nash, counsel for the United States in this litigation. We're here at this deposition because the United States wants to understand the Water Management District's computer systems, how they're used, what the data is on them, how the data is formatted. You have been presented as a representative of the Water Management District having knowledge of one or more areas that we are interested in. Have you been shown the list of categories? A. Yes, I have. I've seen it on my subpoena. Q. And do you know which categories you're able to respond? A. I'm not 100 percent sure. ** 6 Q. I'll show you the list and you can see if you can tell me which ones you believe you have knowledge? A. Some in Category 2, possibly. Maybe a little bit in 3. Possibly -- well, I guess not really Item D, but of 9, that's probably about it. Q. What is your present title or position? A. I'm a control systems supervisor. Q. In what position or department? A. It's the operations division, department of operations and maintenance. Q. What are your job responsibilities? A. Basically, I have the responsibility for staff that's responsible for maintaining our communication and control system computers. Q. And how long have you been a control systems supervisor? A. That's -- I don't exactly know -- several years. Q. Have you had other positions with the Water Management District? A. Yes, I have. Q. What have those positions been? A. Let's see. I believe programer analyst and systems programer. ** 7 Q. In what division were you a programer analyst? A. That was -- at that time technical services. Q. And how long were you a programer analyst in technical services? A. Let's see. Approximately two years. I believe, I transferred approximately 1980 to operations and maintenance. Q. And what were your responsibilities as a programer analyst in tech services? A. I was originally working on a data base project that was later canned by the district. It was an unsuccessful development effort. Q. Any other work where you were a programer analyst? A. Let's see. I did a project for -- I guess it was the chemistry lab at one point in time. Q. What was the nature of that project? A. Let's see. It was to do an analysis of phosphates and total Kjeldahl nitrates. Q. And when was that analysis done? A. There wasn't really an analysis that was done. It was just a software package that was developed at their request, which has later than ** 8 been replaced by the LIMs System. Q. What's your educational background? A. Okay. I have got an associates degree in data processing; and then, I have a bachelor's degree in management sciences. Q. Who are your supervisors in the operations division? A. George Hwa and Ron Mierau, the director. Q. What is Mr. Hwa's title? A. He is the assistant chief of operations. Q. Are there employees within the operations division who work for you? A. Yes, there are. Q. How many? A. Right now, two. Q. And what are their names and positions? A. Okay. One position has just been filled. It's been vacant. The new employee to take that position's name is Dean Corry, and he will be coming on board the 20th of September. Q. And what will his title be? A. Control systems engineer. Q. And the other position? A. Paul Ryan. Q. And what is his job? ** 9 A. Senior systems analyst. Q. You indicated that your job is to oversee the maintenance of the control system computers? A. A hardware and software, maintenance development. Q. Which computers are those? A. The Modcomp computers. Q. And what's the operating system on the Modcomp computers? A. Max Four. Q. And what software packages are utilized on Modcomp? A. It's a custom supervisory control and data acquisition system. Q. Who developed this custom system? A. DBA Associates. Q. Did they develop it uniquely for the Water Management District? A. Yes. Q. And what does this software package do? A. It acquires data from remote sites. Q. What is the nature of that data that it's acquiring? A. Stage levels, gate positions, and rainfall, and conductivity and various sensors that ** 10 are used for electronic diagnosis of the hardware functionality out in the field. Q. What is the hardware that's out in the field that provides this data? A. I'm not sure I understand the question. Q. What is it that's out in the field that provides the stage level data? A. The sensors. Q. Where are those sensors located? A. We have 53 remote sites connected to our network. Q. Is there a map or other listing of where those remote sites are? A. Yes, there is. Q. Does that map or listing have a name? A. Not that I'm aware of. Q. Where is that map or listing? A. It's on the wall. Q. Where, in your office? A. In the control center, yes. Q. Are there any other software packages that you utilize? A. Yes. Q. What other software? A. We use -- on the PCs, they use Symphony, ** 11 Picture Perfect, some communication software packages. Let's see. On the Micro VAX, we use Wollongong, TCP/IP, Interconnect, and the Oracle data base. Q. Which PCs are utilized by the division? A. Each member has their own PC. Q. Do you know which brand or model? A. They're IBM. Q. What does the Picture Perfect software package do? A. They use that to prepare monthly reports. Q. What's the nature of these monthly reports? A. I don't know 100 percent what they're used for. Q. Who would know? A. The assistant director or the director of my division. Q. And that was Mr. Mierau or Mr. Hwa? A. That's correct. Q. You indicated that there are communication software packages also used on the PC? A. Yes. Q. And what are they? A. There are two. One is a custom developed ** 12 package. It's a Pascal program that accesses remote sites in the Kissimmee Valley, and it's called the HITS System for Hydrologic Interim Telemetry System. Q. Any other? A. Yes. I'm not 100 percent sure what the name of the package is, but it's a communications packages that -- the name of it I'm not sure of that -- it's a communications package that also has the capability of retrieving data from several remote sites. Q. Who developed these communications packages? A. The HITS was developed by a contractor to our electronics division. Q. Do you know the name of the contractor? A. I believe his first name is Wesley, but I do not know his last name. Q. And do you know who developed the other communications package? A. Rod Mierau. Q. And you indicated that a software package called Wollongong is utilized on the Micro VAX? A. That's correct. Q. What does that software package do? ** 13 A. We're using that for -- to give the Micro VAX the capability of using the TCP/IP for a -- Q. And what does the TCP/IP do? A. It's an industry standard. It's a Department of Defense communication standard. Q. What is the nature of the work being done on the Micro VAX? A. It's collecting the real time acquired data from the Modcomp computer systems as an interim storage. Q. Where does the data that's being collected go for permanent storage? A. Data management. Q. Do you know on what computer? A. I'm not 100 percent sure. I know it's a DEC computer. Q. Is any processing done in your division on this real time acquired data before it goes to data management? A. None. Q. Is any processing of the data done between the Modcomp computer and the Micro VAX? A. I'm sorry. I didn't hear that. I was talking about getting some more water. Q. Do you want to take a break to -- ** 14 A. Just a second to get some water. (Short break.) Q. (By Ms. Nash) You indicated that the data from the remote sites that's acquired is acquired via the Modcomp computer, and then, it goes to the Micro VAX; is that correct? A. That's correct. Q. Is there any processing done between the Modcomp -- or on the Modcomp computer or between the Modcomp computer and the Micro VAX on the data? A. No. Q. Do you know the name of the data base that the data is in when it gets to data management? A. No, I do not. Q. Do you know who would know? A. I'm sure someone in data management. Q. Is there any documentation or manuals that assist you in utilizing the Modcomp computers? A. There is an operator's manual. Q. Does that operator's manual have a name? A. I could not give you a specific name on that. Q. Are there any documentation or manuals ** 15 that assist you in utilizing the Micro VAX computer? A. Yes. Q. What? A. It's a pretty poor state of documentation on that. It was left by the previous programer. Q. Do offices outside the operations division have access to the data on the Modcomp computers? A. The real time data over the network, they do, if they have proper security. Q. Do you know which offices of the Water Management District access the data on the Modcomp? A. I know the field stations do. Q. Are you aware of any other offices or divisions that access the data on the Modcomp? A. Let's see. I couldn't tell you. I'd have to look at the security password file to give you an accurate answer on that. Q. Is the security password file just for the Modcomp computer? A. That's correct. Q. Do you know whether there are entities outside your division that have access to the data on the Micro VAX? ** 16 A. That, again, is on the network and would require proper security. If I said, "Modcomp," I meant "Micro VAX." Q. Do you know whether there are any entities outside the Water Management District that have access to the data on the Modcomp? A. Not at the present time. Q. Have any entities in the past had access to -- A. The Corps of Engineers expressed interest years and years ago, but they didn't have the proper equipment on their end to make the connection. Q. Any other entities that you're aware of? A. None that I'm aware of. Q. What about on the Micro VAX, are there any entities outside the Water Management District that of have access? A. No. Q. Have there ever been any? A. No. Q. Are there procedures for backing up the data on the Modcomp? A. Let's see. At midnight every night, the previous 24 hours work of historical data is backed ** 17 up to magnetic tape as a precaution, should it not be loadable from the Micro VAX. Q. What is the retention period for those back-up tapes? A. I do not know. Q. Who would know? A. That again would be data management. Q. Are there procedures for backing up the data on the Micro VAX? A. No, we don't back-up the data. Q. Is there anywhere where permanent record of the data received from the remote sites is maintained? A. That would be in data management. Q. Do you know how far back the data is maintained? A. Not exactly. No, I don't. Q. Who would know? A. Data management. Q. Is any analysis done on the data in the operations division? A. Not that I deal with. Not that I am aware of. Q. You indicated that you had some knowledge on (9) d., which is the use of remotely sensed data ** 18 to prepare vegetation maps. What is the extent of your knowledge? A. Well, when I thought about that a little bit more, I got that confused with our accessing remote data, because our data is not used to prepare vegetation maps. Q. Do you know what use is made of the data on the Modcomp computer? A. We use it in our division as an aid in making operational decisions. Q. What is the nature of these operational decisions? A. Those would be gate controls. MS. NASH: I have no further questions. CROSS-EXAMINATION QUESTION BY MR. RICHARDS: Q. Mr. Vyhnanek, I'm Joe Richards. I represent the cities of Belle Glade and Clewiston. You just stated that you utilized remote data to aid in making operational decisions. What information do you obtain from this data to help you in making those decisions? ** 19 MS. WATERS: Is this related to computer data that you're asking him? MR. RICHARDS: Yes. MS. WATERS: If you know, you can answer that question. A. I don't make the decisions. That's done by the chief of operations. The information provided by the system includes water levels, gate positions, pump rpm, and conductivity. Q. (By Mr. Richards) Are you familiar with the process by which data is transferred from the field sensors to the computer? A. Yes, I am. Q. Could you explain that process, please? A. Yes. We have a private microwave network that was built by General Dynamics in the mid Seventies, and we go out from our computer over the microwave network to a master unit, and that master unit in turn initiates VHF communications to remote sites on the canals. Q. Is there a process by which the accuracy of the data so transmitted is checked? A. No. It's real time data. Q. How frequently do the remote sensors transmit data to the control center? ** 20 A. The remote sensors do not transfer data to the control center. Q. How often is information of chain obtained from the remote sensors? A. At various rates. Some of the coastal structures are pulled at 1 minute intervals. Some of the inland structures are pulled at 5 to 15-minute intervals. Some of the solar sites are pulled at 1 hour intervals. Q. What type of data would be obtained that way? A. That's the same data I gave you before. Probably I omitted rainfall. Q. When the data is transmitted to data management, is that raw data or average data values? A. It's the raw data. Q. What department is data management located in? A. I believe in planning. They change so often. Q. And the individuals who access the data on the Modcomp computers, do they have read only access? A. With the exception of the chief of ** 21 operations and his assistant, they have -- they can actually do gate controls, all accesses read only. Q. And for the Micro VAX, do they have read only access, also? A. It depends on the application. Q. Could you explain that? A. Yes. In addition to the Micro VAX collecting the real time data from the Modcomp, there are two Oracle data bases set up for manual data entry. Q. So other than the individuals making this manual data entry, the others would have read only access? A. That's correct. Q. Does your division deal with any water quality data other than the conductivity that you mentioned? A. No. Q. Does your division generate discharge values for the different structures? A. We generate discharge in real time to assist the assistant director and director, but those aren't the official archival discharge values. Q. They aren't or are? ** 22 A. They are not. Q. Who performs these discharge calculations? MS. WATERS: Is this related to discharge calculations on the computers? MR. RICHARDS: Yes. A. I'm not 100 percent sure of that. I know it's not within our division. Q. (By Mr. Richards) The discharge values that are conducted in real time within your division, who does that? A. That's done by the software. Q. Which software is that? A. That's the SCADA software I mentioned earlier. Q. Are these real time discharge values retained? A. They go to the historical archive. Q. And that would be in data management? A. I'm referring to the magnetic tape. I do not know if that particular data value is used by data management. I believe they have their own set, which is the official district's way of computing discharge down there. Q. What computer is this real time discharge ** 23 calculated? A. That's on the Modcomp. Q. So the values would be retained on the back-up tapes for the Modcomp? A. That's correct. Q. Do you know how long these back-up tapes are retained? A. No, I don't, that's data management again. Q. In what format is the data provided to the data management division? A. It's output from the Oracle data base. Q. There's two Modcomp computers; is that correct? A. That's correct. Q. How do you distinguish between the two? A. One runs prime, and the other one is a hot back-up, A and B. Q. Which is which? A. It depends on which is prime that day. All I can give you is by physical location, the one on the right is A, and the one on the left is B. Q. Does your division make use of any satellite imagery? A. We have a GOES Satellite Tape, that is used by our meteorologist. That is the same thing ** 24 that you see on the weather reports on television. Q. Does your division make use of any aerial photography? A. No. Q. Is any of the data utilized by your division manually inputted? A. Would you repeat that, please? Q. Is there any manual input of data utilized by your division? A. Yes, it is. I've got to mention, though, that the way we're using it, our manual data does not go to data management, only the real time telemetry data that's on the Micro VAX. The system that we have on the Micro VAX is a prototype data base. I believe all the official data that's used for reporting within our division is obtained from data management. Q. What is the nature of the manually inputted data? A. Stage readings on water levels that are phoned in from the field. Q. Is there a guideline for the input of this data? A. I don't understand your question. Q. Is there quality assurance or quality ** 25 control guidelines for the input of this data? A. These are just the readings that are gotten by the water readers that are phoned in or radioed into the control center. There are no software checks of limits or rates of change on any of the data. Q. Is there any manual checks of the accuracy of this data? A. There is, but I'm not familiar with that procedure. Q. Who would be? A. The chief of operations. Q. Ron Mierau? A. That's correct, or his assistant George Hwa. Q. How frequently are the remote sensors calibrated? A. I'm not familiar with that procedure. Q. Who would be? A. That, again, would be the director of the division. MR. RICHARDS: Okay. Thank you. I have no further questions. ** 26 (The deposition was concluded at 12:20 o'clock p.m.)