Faced with a looming half-billion-dollar deficit from the expansion of Miami International Airport, the Miami-Dade Aviation Department wants to cash in on an Everglades jetport it was forced to abandon decades ago.

County commissioners are considering prospecting for oil and gas under the swampy, sprawling 37-square-mile site that is now mostly within the borders of the Big Cypress National Wildlife Preserve.

Besides drilling, ranked as option No. 1, there are other possibilities: rock mining, a park for off-road vehicles, selling the land or charging by the chunk for its use as a ``mitigation bank'' to offset wetlands damage elsewhere.

Deputy Aviation Director Miguel Southwell made no bones about priorities for the property, largely comprised of protected marsh: Maximize the money to help pay MIA operating expenses and construction debt that will balloon from $630 million now to $1.1 billion annually by 2015.

``We need to look at all the assets owned by the county and decide how to squeeze money out of every one,'' he said. ``We think we can do this responsibly and still generate critical revenue.''

Environmentalists are flabbergasted -- and dubious. It was, after all, Miami-Dade's plan for a massive jetport midway between Miami and Naples that galvanized the Save The Glades movement and led to the creation of the Big Cypress Preserve in 1974. Burned by the ensuing political firestorm, the county backed off after paving a 10,000-foot runway that in the 35 years since has been sporadically used as a training strip.

Longtime activist Alan Farago blasted the drilling and mining proposals as ``hare-brained'' on a blog he co-writes, Eye On Miami.

``Does anyone really believe that there is a point to fighting the same battles over and over again, over unsustainable and damaging uses to the Everglades?''

A commission vote scheduled for Tuesday was postponed after Mayor Carlos Alvarez pulled the item from the agenda on Monday. County Manager George Burgess said the last-minute change was due to the mayor wanting more time to consider revenue-generating uses for the property.

`BIG ISSUE'

``This is a big issue,'' said Burgess. ``We're talking about a property we own in the Everglades and we need to go deliberately and understand what the realities are around us and what the possibilities might be.''

The proposals are the latest money-making schemes pitched by airport managers struggling to close an annual deficit that Southwell projected will widen to a staggering $500 million in five years.

In July, commissioners voted 8-3 to put slot machines in MIA, a side business the department hopes will ring up about $17 million annually if state gambling permits are secured.

Southwell, who has been charged with finding ways to generate non-aviation revenue, said the department is pursuing all viable options at MIA and five other, smaller county-run airports. At decommissioned Opa-locka West, for instance, the department is completing plans to mine limestone fill on 400 acres. It is expected to generate $20 million a year for 19 years.

The county paid Lampl Herbert Consultants $140,000 for an ``asset evaluation'' of the jetport. The report noted that given its history and location, in the Big Cypress and adjacent to Everglades National Park, work will be ``the subject of intense public debate'' and require ``strong environmental sensitivity'' -- not to mention a slew of state and federal permits.