The latest proposal for overhauling a road that has bottled up the River of Grass for a century will not deliver anywhere near the amount of water the parched Everglades National Park needs, but the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers argues it is the best available option.

"We're looking for that magic zone of cost, benefits and implementation time," said Stuart Appelbaum, the Corps' deputy for restoration program management who unveiled the tentative plan to an interagency Everglades task force last week.

The Corps is proposing a one-mile bridge on Tamiami Trail a few miles west of Krome Avenue that would increase north-south water flow by about 50 percent, enough to meet an interim target Congress requested last year. But that would still be about a third of the amount the project ultimately was supposed to deliver.

Environmentalists, worried there may be only one shot at a project that is crucial to restoring the flow through the entire Everglades, are dubious. They say the bridge would deliver only marginal benefits to the park and could undermine future restoration efforts.

"It's a small step, but it is a step," said Sara Fain, Everglades restoration program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association. "Now the question is, 'What do we do next?' We know this won't do the job alone" (Curtis Morgan, Miami Herald, March 3). -- JV