The Salt Lake County Tailings Impoundment Committee will seek bids for an independent investigator as early as September to answer that question.

Reports surfaced earlier this year that the copper giant, in the late 1980s, concealed warnings that the waste impoundment could fail during a major temblor and send a muddy slurry into Magna's nearby Green Meadows Estates subdivision.

The county's tailings committee convened Wednesday to set parameters for picking a consultant, including provisions to disqualify any applicant with too close of ties to Kennecott.

"The community needs to know that we are beyond reproach in the selection process," committee member Dave Nicponski said.

What the committee didn't discuss was a potentially conflicting mission that member Lex Watterson plugged, and other panelists agreed with, in June: That the committee focus both on safety and on improving Magna's image.

"We should always be thinking, 'We're here to reframe, in a positive and accurate way, people's . . . image of the community,' " Watterson told colleagues then.

Watterson insisted Wednesday that his comments weren't about skewing the tailings study nor soft-pedaling its results - concerns raised by ethics experts. They were about getting the facts to settle any misconceptions about his community.

"Our whole mission is for the perception of safety and the actual safety to be one and the same," Watterson said. "In 1988, [the impoundment] was perceived as safe, but it was less than so. In 2008, it may be safe, but it is perceived as not safe. We want perception to match reality, period."

With a $250,000 Kennecott donation to pay for its investigation, the tailings panel likely will seeks bids in early September.

While the committee won't immediately eliminate applicants who have worked for Kennecott, members said those connections - which must be disclosed - could serve as a "tiebreaker" between evenly matched engineers.

"Our goal is who is going to do the best job," committee member Steve Prokopis said. "Our goal isn't to choose the person with the least connections to Kennecott."

By the end of October, the committee hopes to have a consultant chosen and a one-year investigation under way into the stability of the tailings pile.

jstettler@sltrib.com

Engineers warned then-Kennecott President Frank Joklik in 1988 that part of a huge mine-tailings pond could fail in a major quake. Joklik ordered a cover-up to avert ''panic," and state regulators agreed to keep reports under wraps. In 1989, Kennecott launched a $550 million project to stabilize the old pond and build a new one. This spring, current Kennecott President Andrew Harding declared the site safe. The Magna Tailings Committee is overseeing a review to see if that's the case.

What's next

The Salt Lake County Tailings Impoundment Committee plans to meet Aug. 27 to adopt criteria for hiring a consultant.