Read more in Coal Tattoo

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- U.S. Interior Department officials announced plans Monday to reverse a key Bush administration coal-mining rule change, but hedged about whether they plan to actually enforce the previous version in a manner that would limit mountaintop removal.

Citing unspecified "legal deficiencies," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he plans to ask a federal court to remand the Bush changes to the stream "buffer zone" rule to his agency for further review.

Salazar did not describe what -- if any -- plans the Obama administration has for enforcing the buffer zone rule, and emphasized that the move does not indicate a lack of support for the coal industry.

"Coal was and will remain an important part of our national energy portfolio," Salazar told reporters in a conference call. "But this 11th-hour rule simply does not protect our environment and our communities. It simply doesn't pass the smell test."

Salazar's announcement drew little praise from either the coal industry or environmental groups, and only raised more questions about what direction the administration is headed on mountaintop removal.

National Mining Association President Hal Quinn said the Interior Department's "move to undo a seven-year rulemaking process is precipitous and will only add to the uncertainty that is delaying mining operations and jeopardizing jobs."

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

Joan Mulhern, senior legislative counsel for Earthjustice, said Salazar's announcement is "meaningless" unless it "is accompanied by a firm commitment to enforce the law as it applies to mountaintop removal and valley fills."

Mulhern's organization and the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment are already suing Interior in federal court, trying to block the Bush administration's buffer zone rule changes.

Read more in Coal Tattoo

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- U.S. Interior Department officials announced plans Monday to reverse a key Bush administration coal-mining rule change, but hedged about whether they plan to actually enforce the previous version in a manner that would limit mountaintop removal.

Citing unspecified "legal deficiencies," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he plans to ask a federal court to remand the Bush changes to the stream "buffer zone" rule to his agency for further review.

Salazar did not describe what -- if any -- plans the Obama administration has for enforcing the buffer zone rule, and emphasized that the move does not indicate a lack of support for the coal industry.

"Coal was and will remain an important part of our national energy portfolio," Salazar told reporters in a conference call. "But this 11th-hour rule simply does not protect our environment and our communities. It simply doesn't pass the smell test."

Salazar's announcement drew little praise from either the coal industry or environmental groups, and only raised more questions about what direction the administration is headed on mountaintop removal.

National Mining Association President Hal Quinn said the Interior Department's "move to undo a seven-year rulemaking process is precipitous and will only add to the uncertainty that is delaying mining operations and jeopardizing jobs."

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

Joan Mulhern, senior legislative counsel for Earthjustice, said Salazar's announcement is "meaningless" unless it "is accompanied by a firm commitment to enforce the law as it applies to mountaintop removal and valley fills."

Mulhern's organization and the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment are already suing Interior in federal court, trying to block the Bush administration's buffer zone rule changes.

Justice Department lawyers have not yet responded for the Interior Department, and the agency's first official filing is not due with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia until next week.

Salazar said Monday he had instructed DOJ lawyers to ask U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy to send the case back to Interior, and allow the agency to revert to a 1983 version of the rule.

Generally, the 1983 version of the buffer zone rule prohibited mining activities within 100 feet of streams. Coal operators could obtain waivers, but only if they could show their operations would not damage water quality or quantity.

Interior's Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement and various state regulators never applied the buffer zone rule to valley fill waste piles. After a federal court ruled in 1999 that it did apply to valley fills, coal industry lobbyists began trying to eliminate the rule.

During one court appeal in 2000, the Clinton administration sided with citizen groups, and argued that the buffer zone rule was intended to control the size of valley fills. But once George W. Bush took office, OSM moved to gut the rule.

The final OSM version, approved in December, exempts valley fills and similar waste dumps, such as slurry impoundments, from the 100-foot stream buffer. A companion rule requires coal operators to minimize these fills and consider alternatives for waste disposal.

If the Bush rule is remanded, OSM said it would issue guidance to states on how to apply the 1983 rule. OSM said it would also seek public comment on the potential development of a "comprehensive new stream buffer zone rule" that would update the 1983 version, "address ambiguities and fill interpretational gaps, while implementing the statutory requirements" set forth by the federal strip-mining law.

OSM spokesman Peter Mali said the agency has not decided if it would apply the 1983 rule to the footprint of valley fills or not.

"We are going to work with the Department [of Interior], the [White House Council on Environmental Quality], EPA and the Corps of Engineers to sort of work all of this out," Mali said. "I don't have anything more specific than that at this time."

Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kw...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1702.