F-Transcript of Proceedings, Vol. III-June 18, 2014
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GILA RIVER VOL. III 06/18/2014 537 1 BEFORE THE 2 ARIZONA NAVIGABLE STREAM ADJUDICATION COMMISSION 3 4 IN THE MATTER OF THE NAVIGABILITY ) OF THE GILA RIVER FROM THE NEW ) NO. 03-007-NAV 5 MEXICO BORDER TO THE CONFLUENCE ) WITH THE COLORADO RIVER, GREENLEE, ) ADMINISTRATIVE 6 GRAHAM, GILA, PINAL, MARICOPA AND ) HEARING YUMA COUNTIES, ARIZONA. ) 7 ___________________________________) 8 9 10 At: Phoenix, Arizona 11 Date: June 18, 2014 12 Filed: July 11, 2014 13 14 REPORTER'S TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS 15 VOLUME III 16 Pages 537 through 771, inclusively 17 18 19 COASH & COASH, INC. Court Reporting, Video & Videoconferencing 20 1802 N. 7th Street, Phoenix, AZ 85006 602-258-1440 [email protected] 21 Prepared by: 22 Gary W. HILL, RMR, CRR Certificate No. 50812 23 24 25 COASH & COASH, INC. (602) 258-1440 www.coashandcoash.com Phoenix, AZ GILA RIVER VOL. III 06/18/2014 538 1 INDEX TO EXAMINATIONS 2 WITNESS PAGE 3 DONALD D. FARMER 4 Direct Examination by Mr. Katz 542 Cross-Examination by Mr. Hood 578 5 Cross-Examination by Mr. Sparks 595 Cross-Examination by Mr. Murphy 616 6 Cross-Examination by Mr. McGinnis 623 Redirect Examination by Mr. Katz 634 7 8 JONATHAN EDWARD FULLER (Continuing) 9 Cross-Examination by Mr. Sparks 643 Cross-Examination by Ms. Kolsrud 697 10 Cross-Examination by Mr. Helm 701 Redirect Examination by Mr. Katz 706 11 Redirect Examination by Ms. Hernbrode 733 Further Redirect Examination by Mr. Katz 735 12 Examination by Commissioner Allen 743 13 ALLEN GOOKIN 14 Direct Examination by Mr. Murphy 750 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 COASH & COASH, INC. (602) 258-1440 www.coashandcoash.com Phoenix, AZ GILA RIVER VOL. III 06/18/2014 539 1 BE IT REMEMBERED that the above-entitled and 2 numbered matter came on regularly to be heard before the 3 Arizona Navigable Stream Adjudication Commission, State 4 Senate Building, Hearing Room 1, 1700 West Washington 5 Street, Phoenix, Arizona, commencing at 9:00 a.m. on the 6 18th day of June, 2014. 7 8 BEFORE: WADE NOBLE, Chairman JIM HENNESS, Vice Chairman 9 JIM HORTON, Commissioner BILL ALLEN, Commissioner 10 11 Commission Staff: 12 George Mehnert, Director, Legal Assistant, Research Analyst 13 14 APPEARANCES: 15 For the Commission: 16 SQUIRE PATTON BOGGS (US) LLP By Fred E. Breedlove, III, Esq. 17 1 East Washington Street, Suite 2700 Phoenix, Arizona 85004 18 (602) 528-4000 [email protected] 19 20 For the Salt River Project Agricultural Improvement and Power District and Salt River Valley Water Users' 21 Association: 22 SALMON LEWIS & WELDON, PLC By Mark A. McGinnis, Esq. 23 2850 East Camelback Road, Suite 200 Phoenix, Arizona 85016 24 (602) 801-9066 [email protected] 25 COASH & COASH, INC. (602) 258-1440 www.coashandcoash.com Phoenix, AZ GILA RIVER VOL. III 06/18/2014 540 1 For San Carlos Apache Tribe: 2 THE SPARKS LAW FIRM, PC By Joe P. Sparks, Esq. 3 By Julia Kolsrud, Esq. 7503 First Street 4 Scottsdale, Arizona 85251 (480) 949-1339 5 [email protected] 6 7 For Freeport Minerals Corporation: 8 FENNEMORE CRAIG, PC By Sean T. Hood, Esq. 9 2394 East Camelback Road, Suite 600 Phoenix, Arizona 85016 10 (602) 916-5475 [email protected] 11 12 For Gila River Indian Community: 13 By Thomas L. Murphy, Esq. 14 Assistant General Counsel 525 W. Gu u Ki 15 Post Office Box 97 Sacaton, Arizona 85147 16 (602) 562-9760 [email protected] 17 18 For Arizona State Land Department: 19 ARIZONA ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE 20 By Paul A. Katz, Esq. By Joy Hernbrode, Esq. 21 By Laurie Hachtel, Esq. 1275 West Washington 22 Phoenix, Arizona 85007 (602) 542-7785 23 [email protected] 24 25 COASH & COASH, INC. (602) 258-1440 www.coashandcoash.com Phoenix, AZ GILA RIVER VOL. III 06/18/2014 541 1 For Maricopa County: 2 HELM LIVESAY & WORTHINGTON, LTD By John Helm, Esq. 3 By Jeffrey L. Hrycko, Esq. 1619 East Guadalupe Road, Suite 1 4 Tempe, Arizona 85283 (480) 345-9500 5 [email protected] 6 7 8 GARY W. HILL, RMR, CRR 9 Certified Reporter Certificate No. 50812 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 COASH & COASH, INC. (602) 258-1440 www.coashandcoash.com Phoenix, AZ GILA RIVER VOL. III 06/18/2014 542 1 CHAIRMAN NOBLE: Gary, will you show that all 2 Commissioners but Commissioner Allen are present, and 3 Counsel and George are here. 4 Mr. Katz, will you begin by introducing 5 Mr. Farmer? 6 MR. KATZ: Most definitely. 7 8 DONALD D. FARMER 9 called as a witness on behalf of the State Land 10 Department, was examined and testified as follows: 11 12 DIRECT EXAMINATION 13 BY MR. KATZ: 14 Q. Mr. Farmer, I'll give you the honor. Would 15 you please tell us your full and correct name? 16 A. Donald D. Farmer. 17 Q. And would you tell us a little bit about 18 yourself, your education and work related experience? 19 A. I was born in Phoenix, 1955. Raised in 20 Phoenix and Christopher Creek, Arizona. My work 21 experience has been in construction. I've been a 22 painting and coatings contractor for the last 35 years. 23 Education, I've got an Associate in Applied 24 Science and Building Safety and Planning Technology, and 25 I've finished with a bachelor's equivalent at N-A-C-E, COASH & COASH, INC. (602) 258-1440 www.coashandcoash.com Phoenix, AZ GILA RIVER VOL. III 06/18/2014 543 1 which is NACE. I went through their international 2 coating inspection program. 3 Q. And you're not here today as an engineer or a 4 scientist with respect to issues of geomorphology or 5 hydrology, correct? 6 A. No, I'm not. 7 Q. And you're not educated as a historian, that 8 is, you don't have a bachelor's, master's or doctorate 9 degree in archaeology or history? 10 A. That's correct. 11 Q. And tell us a little bit though about your 12 boating experience. How long have you been boating in 13 Arizona and in the southwestern United States? 14 A. I started boating while I was still in high 15 school. Pretty much all of the Arizona rivers. 16 Anything that had water in it. I was pretty much there 17 in the summertime and when I was not in school. 18 Q. And during the course of the last, what, 25 19 years or longer? 20 A. Oh, probably longer than that. 21 Q. Okay. 22 A. It would be more like 40. 23 Q. And have you had the opportunity to boat the 24 Colorado River? 25 A. Yes, I have boated the Colorado River. I've COASH & COASH, INC. (602) 258-1440 www.coashandcoash.com Phoenix, AZ GILA RIVER VOL. III 06/18/2014 544 1 been through the Grand Canyon on private trips six 2 times, and I've boated the lower Colorado River with Boy 3 Scout groups. 4 Q. And have you also had the opportunity to boat 5 portions of the Verde River? 6 A. I've boated the Verde River from the 7 headwaters south of Chino Valley all the way down to the 8 mouth of the Salt River. 9 Q. And have you had the opportunity to boat at 10 all down the Salt River? 11 A. I've boated the Salt River through the 12 wilderness section, which starts at the Highway 60 13 Bridge in Salt River Canyon down to the Young Road 14 Bridge at the top of Roosevelt Lake, and I've boated the 15 section below Stewart Mountain Dam down to Granite Reef. 16 Q. And have all of these trips of yours been on 17 diminished flows as the result of damming and diversion, 18 if you know? 19 A. The Verde River trips above Horseshoe have all 20 been on a natural flow regime in regard to dams. There 21 are no dams above Horseshoe. The Salt River Wilderness 22 is again an undammed flow, and the flows on the lower 23 Salt River were dam-regime water flows. 24 Q. Have you also had the opportunity to boat the 25 San Juan River and Green Rivers in the State of Utah? COASH & COASH, INC. (602) 258-1440 www.coashandcoash.com Phoenix, AZ GILA RIVER VOL. III 06/18/2014 545 1 A. Yes, I have. 2 Q. And has that been just on a single occasion or 3 on multiple occasions? 4 A. Multiple occasions on both rivers. The San 5 Juan River being basically a springtime run. It was 6 work-related time off, when I could get the time off, 7 and the Green River was in the autumn months. 8 Q. And the San Juan, how often have you boated 9 that? 10 A. We try to do it on an annual basis. 11 Q. So you've seen it at different flow rates? 12 A. Yes. 13 Q. And the Green River, how many times in the 14 last five years, if you recall, have you boated the 15 Green River, which is a tributary to the Colorado River, 16 correct? 17 A. I've boated that twice in the last five years, 18 basically the reach from Gates of Lodore through Split 19 Mountain. 20 Q. And where else have you done boating? 21 A. I've boated extensively in Idaho, the middle 22 fork of the Salmon River multiple times.