The Vancouver Sun reports in its Tuesday edition that as reported earlier by The Sun, a crack in Mount Polley mine's dam was found in a 2010 inspection. The Sun's Vaughn Palmer writes the offending 10- to 15- metre tension crack had been discovered by a grader operator at the dam site in late summer 2010 but not reported to Knight Piesold, the mine's then-geotechnical engineering firm. By the time the inspector got to looking it over two months later, the crack had been partly covered with dirt. Forty per cent of the 92 instruments used to gauge the buildup of water pressure at the dam were broken. Moreover, the replacement problem had first been identified in a safety report four years earlier. When the dam collapsed, Knight Piesold issued a public statement saying it warned the company and provincial officials that the structure was "getting large" and care needed to be taken to avoid problems. Both Imperial Metals and the provincial government refused to comment, citing investigation into the breach. The Liberals also refulsed to release inspection reports on the tailings dam for the years 2011 to 2013, raising questions about whether the government's role is as mining regulator or a corporate defender.