Denial dangerous when facing environmental change

Listening to the October 8, 2008, meeting of the Fayetteville airport board on government channel for the second time this morning, I was reminded how disappointed I was the first time the meeting was aired on City 16.
Two or three people at the meeting were unwilling to accept the judgment of the Federal Emergency Management Agency on the amount of Drake Field land in the flood plain of the West Fork of the White River.
Someone even suggested that a lawsuit might be in order involving all residents of Northwest Arkansas to force FEMA to recant the updated estimates of the the expanse of the floodplain.
Suing FEMA would not be appropriate over the requirement of flood insurance in areas where it was not formerly available.
Suing the people who have cleared land and paved and roofed over areas where water used to remain to soak in upstream would, however, make sense.
FEMA did not expand the floodplain. FEMA just FINALLY acknowledged what residents knew. Damage to the watershed expanded the floodplain.
Denial is more than a river in Egypt. It is a potentially deadly mistake when dealing with watershed issues.