CHARLESTON -- The Obama administration wants to overturn a Bush-era rule that allows the coal industry to dump more mining waste in streams.

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar on April 27 said the stream buffer zone rule is legally defective, and the Department of Justice will challenge the rule in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., according to a news release. The DOJ will ask that the rule be vacated and remanded to the Department of Interior for further action, the release stated.

"In its last weeks in office, the Bush Administration pushed through a rule that allows coal mine operators to dump mountaintop fill into streambeds if it's found to be the cheapest and most convenient disposal option," Salazar said in the news release.

The rule change would retighten restrictions on when coal companies can create valley fills.

Valley fills are created when rock and rubble covering coal seams is removed and strategically dumped in nearby ravines. Environmental groups say the practice chokes streams and pollutes water.

The Sierra Club was quick to applaud the new administration's decision, but it wants President Obama to take further action toward ending mountaintop mining.

The group called for strict enforcement of the original stream buffer zone rule and other regulations.

"Restoring the previous stream buffer zone regulation is one component in the fight to end mountaintop removal coal mining," said Mary Anne Hitt, deputy director of the Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign, in a news release.

"Secretary Salazar said accurately that today's action will not end mountaintop removal coal mining or impact existing coal mine permits or operations. Therefore we look forward to working with the Obama Administration on comprehensive steps to end this destructive practice before it's too late."

National Mining Association President and CEO Hal Quinn said in a news release the move will only add to uncertainty delaying mining operations and jeopardizing jobs.

"We trust the secretary of the interior does not plan on engaging in a de facto rulemaking, thereby avoiding the transparency integral to a fair and legal regulation," Quinn said.

Luke Popovich, NMA vice president for external communications, said the case still must be heard by the court and go back to the Office of Surface Mining, so the result is anyone's guess.

Environmental group Coal River Mountain Watch Co-Executive Director Vernon Haltom also said the decision leaves a lot of uncertainty.

"We hope this will mean the original stream buffer zone rule is enforced," he said.

The Sierra Club, Coal River Mountain Watch and other environmental groups regularly point to the nearly 2,000 miles of streams impacted by mountaintop mining and valley fills. They say valley fills lead to contaminated drinking water, increased flooding and moonscape-like land.

"We must responsibly develop our coal supplies to help us achieve energy independence, but we cannot do so without appropriately assessing the impact such development might have on local communities and natural habitat and the species it supports," Salazar said in a news release.

Coal mine operators may dispose of excess mining waste in streams and within 100 feet of those streams when alternative options are considered "not reasonably possible" under the present rule. The Bush-era rule said unreasonable alternatives are those that cost substantially more than dumping the waste.

The Bush-era rule replaced a 1983 rule that allowed the dumping of overburden within 100 feet of a stream only when such activities "will not adversely affect the water quantity or quality or other environmental resources of the stream," according to the news release

Two lawsuits were filed immediately after the Bush rule was published, the release stated.

"The so-called 'stream buffer zone rule' simply doesn't pass muster with respect to adequately protecting water quality and stream habitat that communities rely on in coal country," Salazar said in the release.

If the court accepts the United States' request and vacates and remands the rule, the 1983 rule will continue to remain in force in all of the states that have delegated authority under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act.