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Posted: 5:13 PM- PRICE - How much information should the feds share with the state when it comes to parallel investigations of the Crandall Canyon mine disaster?

That question became a point of contention Monday when the newly formed Utah Mine Safety Commission received a report from an attorney for the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) team investigating last month's mine implosions that killed nine miners and injured six others.

Scott Matheson, chairman of the state commission, curtly made clear that his panel expected access to more information than just whatever MSHA was willing to release in its periodic public updates. Otherwise, he said, the commission will not be able to fulfill Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s mandate to assess the state's past and future roles in mine safety.

"You're talking to a lot of people about a lot of things that are often relevant to what we need," Matheson told James Crawford, a senior trial attorney at MSHA and legal advisor to the agency investigation team headed by Richard Gates.

Crawford said he would like to satisfy Matheson's desire for more information but added that there are limitations on what MSHA should disclose before its probe is complete.

"I hope you are sensitive to our need to protect our investigative process," he said, maintaining that releases of bits and pieces of information before the big picture is assembled can lead to premature conclusions that later turn out to be wrong. "We want to do a good job here . . . To do that, we have to respect the investigative process."

A veteran of MSHA's probe into the 1984 Wilberg mine disaster, in which 27 Utah miners died in a pre-Christmas fire, Crawford said MSHA is working with the governor's office to strike a balance that protects the investigation's integrity while trying to be open with the state commission.

Matheson said he has talked to the governor's office about that issue as well. And he expressed concern that Crawford's comments seem less forthcoming than those uttered by Kevin Stricklin, the MSHA official over coal mining health and safety, when Stricklin addressed the Legislature nearly two weeks ago.

"If we're not getting [information], we're going to push for it," vowed Matheson, former U.S. Attorney and past dean of the University of Utah Law School. "I'd like the [state commission] to make relevancy determinations [on information] and not rely on MSHA. I'd like a commitment of a good faith effort to work this out."

Crawford noted that the state will be involved directly in MSHA's investigation. Sherrie Hayashi, one of the state's five labor commissioners, will be the state's liaison to MSHA's investigative team.

Hayashi said that since the state does not have people with mine-safety experience, "the governor's office is still trying to determine our role" in that investigation.

A longtime state Labor Commission employee, Hayashi started as an investigator in the anti-discrimination division, served as fair housing coordinator, worked as an attorney for the uninsured employers' and employer reinsurance funds, and was the anti-discrimination division director before being appointed a commissioner last year.

MSHA investigators, Crawford said, have been at work since Sept. 2, going through company and MSHA records. They are now examining what they can of the Crandall Canyon mine's underground workings, but that is limited by the extent of damage from the implosions and the threat of more meltdowns if the tunnel system is disturbed again.

He added that investigators are developing a list of miners, engineers and others with first-hand knowledge of what might have happened in the fatal Aug. 6 and Aug. 16 cave-ins (the latter killed three rescuers). No site has been picked yet for formal interviews with those people.

But MSHA has determined that only government officials will be present for those interviews, Crawford said, contending "witnesses are more comfortable giving us their accounts" of conditions at the mine if they are not in the public spotlight.

"We will provide periodic updates on what we're doing to the public, you [the commission] and the families," he said. "What information can be revealed we will communicate."

Matheson said he already has met once with some survivors of disaster victims and would be talking with their representatives again Monday to ensure the families are kept abreast of the state commission's activities.

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