Safety oversight

As with the recent coal-mine deaths in West Virginia, tragedy has a way of focusing the spotlight on shortcomings that, in hindsight, were ignored too long.

As more and more information becomes available about the Taum Sauk reservoir near Ironton, Mo., it appears there were plenty of indications that something was amiss long before last month's devastating rupture and flood damage.

More than a billion gallons of water scoured the Ozark hillsides, destroying the home of the park superintendent at Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park. Miraculously, everyone in the house survived.

It will take months, if not years, to determine whether portions of the mountaintop reservoir's sides had settled enough to contribute to the rupture, which AmerenUE officials -- the utility company uses the water to generate electricity -- preliminarily believe was due to the failure of sensors that allowed the manmade lake to be filled with too much water.

But questions abound. The reservoir has received federal inspections since 1996. Despite notations acknowledging that some portions of the reservoir's walls were sagging, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission continued to give safety approvals. The most recent inspection was in August. The report of that inspection, ironically, was filed the day after the reservoir collapsed.

It's one thing to pass a government inspection when inspectors are not diligent or deficiencies are not readily apparent. But to get the government's stamp of approval year after year while pointing out what now look like serious problems doesn't seem reasonable, particularly in light of the Dec. 14 disaster.

The hills affected by the blast of so much water will heal themselves. The state park will eventually be restored and opened to the public.

But those nagging questions about government oversight, whether at a reservoir or in a coal mine, need to be answered.