Judge Rebuffs Obama On Mining Waste

A federal judge on Wednesday rebuffed the Obama administration's attempt to reverse a Bush-era rule that allows surface mine waste to be dumped near streams.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar wanted to return to a 1983 regulation that kept coal companies 100 feet from streams unless they could prove that mining would not harm water quality or quantity. But U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. wrote in his ruling that granting Salazar's request would be tantamount to changing a federal regulation without public input. The Interior Department is reviewing the decision.

In mountaintop removal mining, companies remove vast areas to expose coal. Although they are required to restore much of the land, the removal creates tons of debris that is used to fill nearby valleys.

-Associated Press