The hillside below the cracked and crumbling canal in Logan served fair warning. For weeks, witnesses say, water steeped in soil trickled down the slope and painted Canyon Road a chocolate brown.

Late Saturday morning, the earth gave way, knocking the single-story home at 915 E. Canyon Road off its foundation, enveloping it in smothering mud and killing the occupants, Jacqueline Leavey, 43, and her 13-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter. The search for the cause continues. But signs point to the Logan Northern Canal.

The irrigation canal has been blamed for numerous landslides dating back to the 19th century, including one on Canyon Road in 2005. And studies in 2003, 2005 and 2008 spoke to the deteriorating condition of the conduit. As recently as May, Logan Mayor Randy Watts told the City Council the canal was leaking from cracks in the concrete walls.

Aware that water was washing over Canyon Road, and knowing the history of the canal, the city was remiss in allowing residents to remain in their homes. And it was remiss in allowing the canal company to conduct its own safety inspections. Government oversight is sorely needed.

We inspect airplanes, automobiles, the merry-go-rounds at amusements parks. Buildings, bridges and dams get fine-tooth-comb treatment. Hospitals, restaurants, taco carts, too. All in the name of public safety. But the inspection and maintenance of canals that carry millions of gallons of water in Utah, and have

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caused numerous landslides and floods, are left solely to private enterprise. That has to change.

Municipalities and/or the state must adopt safety standards and inspection programs for irrigation canals, and set the bar highest where canals flow through populated areas.

A certification program and rigorous training regimen should be put in place for canal company water masters, so they can detect problems and take corrective action.

The shareholders of the Logan Northern need to place pipe in the canal bed. Only by encasing the flow and insulating it from the deteriorating concrete can they assure their water supply, and the safety of Canyon Road residents. And officials in cities where canals pose a risk to occupied areas must adopt emergency evacuation plans, and implement them at the first sign of trouble.

"Maybe," Utah lieutenant governor and governor-in-waiting Gary Herbert said, "this is a wake-up call." Maybe, he said, it's time for government to intervene. Maybe? Actually, the alarm has sounded dozens of times, but government officials have repeatedly and unconscionably hit the snooze button. And now, the needless loss of lives is the result.