Hundreds of miles of canals make their way to the Atlantic. Once there they disgorge into the ocean 1.7 billion gallons of fresh water a day. A hundred miles to the south, the parched Everglades National Park struggles to survive. Water levels in the park are half what they were 50 years ago. As if to redress their mistakes, the Army Corps Engineers is now back in the picture. A 20-year, $7.8 billion plan (the largest environmental restoration proposal in American history), introduced by vice-president Al Gore last October, proposes that the engineers should destroy several of the dykes that keep water from reaching the Everglades. Meanwhile, thousands of acres of land in the region would be bought by the government to act as reservoirs for the increased water flow.