When the residents on and near Route 209 in Wawarsing were getting flooded every year, they believed it was a local problem — this area has a high water table, and flooding seems to happen to everyone here from time to time. They figured that they were just the unlucky ones in our already soggy region.

But when they made the connection between the constant and severe flooding in that area and the leaking Delaware Aqueduct which runs underneath, suddenly it wasn't simply a local problem — this was an issue that involved everyone from our local leaders and town council members, to the huge bureaucracy of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, or DEP.

If the link between the aqueduct and our flooding that everyone from County Administrator Michael Hein to US Congressman Maurice Hinchey already believes exists is proven to be true, there are only two real remedies: 1) New York City needs build a new tunnel (which they're already in the planning stages for — it seems a leaky tunnel is not ideal for supplying Manhattan with its water, no matter who may or may not be getting waterlogged); and 2) The homeowners afflicted by the flooding need to be compensated for the expenses they've incurred, or at the very least, have their homes bought out so they can relocate and start from scratch.

And if the DEP's recent commitments of funding and resources to fixing the town's drainage on Smith Road, and the providing of sump pumps and ultra-violet water filtration systems to afflicted residents is any indication, they're willing to start work now to right a wrong that's gone ignored for far too long. But as helpful as these moves are, this doesn't solve the problem — residents will continue to get flooded. And there's a much, much larger problem that flows beyond the boundaries of Wawarsing: millions of people are being served by a leaking and unstable aqueduct.

The band-aid approach of the DEP to this problem is very typical of the way that all of America is dealing with its massive problems with infrastructure — problems that require lots of money and commitment to solve. And that way is to ignore them, temporarily mitigate them, and hope they go away.

But they won't go away. Bridges collapse, levies fail, and tunnels will, ultimately, cave-in. The flooded residents of Wawarsing's problems are symbolic of so much that is wrong in our society. It's hard to reconcile a city in danger of losing its water and in need of a few billion dollars with a war nobody wants and that's accomplishing nothing, while costing hundreds of billions of dollars.

There are numerous hazards right here at home that ought to be dealt with first — before we continue to fight "a war on terror."

What about the terror of having gallons of water seep through your floor, destroying your home, your savings, and your sanity? What about the terror of a major metropolitan city relying entirely on a cracked and crumbling tunnel that could collapse any minute for half of its entire water supply?

What's more terrifying than that?

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