I have written a bit about the Crandall Canyon Mine collapse in Utah. You remember, the story was on the news for days and the mine’s owner Bob Murray took every chance he could to get on TV and talk about how safe the mine was and how he thought an earthquake actually caused the tragedy.

Well, he was wrong.

Yesterday, the Chairman of an investigation in Congress called for a criminal inquiry in to the collapse the death of nine miners.

This from the Associated Press:

WASHINGTON (AP) — A leading House Democrat wants federal prosecutors to open a criminal investigation into the deaths of nine people in a Utah mine collapse last year.

Democratic Rep. George Miller of California is the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee. Miller says his investigation into the August 2007 deaths at Crandall Canyon led him to make a criminal referral to the Justice Department.

Miller says UtahAmerican Energy may have misled federal mine safety inspectors on how safe the mine was. He says investigation shows the company may have downplayed a “bump” that burst pillars in another section of the mine months before the accident.

The Labor Department is still investigating the Crandall Canyon collapse.

Miller feels the deaths were avoidable and he wants to know if there was a larger conspiracy here.

After reaching for the limelight during the vigil to try and get the miners out, Bob Murray suddenly went mute.

This from the Salt Lake City Tribune:

Adair, along with mine co-owner Bob Murray and three other officials with Murray Energy’s Utah subsidiaries, declined to be deposed by committee investigators, asserting their constitutional right against self-incrimination, the report said.

The president and a former principal of Agapito Associates Inc., the engineering firm that advised Murray Energy on the mine plan, also were subpoenaed to testify but invoked their Fifth Amendment right as well, according to the report.

So what now?

Again, the Tribune story:

The U.S. attorney for Utah said he will review a congressional request for a criminal investigation into whether the Crandall Canyon mine general manager “willfully misled” federal officials.

A spokeswoman for Brett Tolman, the state’s top federal law enforcement official, said he takes the request “very seriously” and will review the materials submitted by House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller.

“As with other referrals that come to our office, we will carefully screen the material provided to us, work with agents to conduct further investigation as needed, and consider whether criminal charges are appropriate based on evidence in the case,” Melodie Rydalch said in a statement.

While the mine operations should be held accountable if they indeed did put the safety of their workers knowingly in harms way, the bigger finger should be pointed at the federal agency responsible for overseeing these operations, the Mine Safety and Health Administration. The administration’s own inspector general has said the agency was negligent, according to the New York Times.

Hopefully the miners and their families will have justice in the end.