Sludge pile of waivers awaits administration

In accordance with White House tradition, officials in the Bush administration are quickly signing off on a series of wide-ranging and controversial regulatory changes as they head toward the exit. The pace is so rapid that Barack Obama's transition team is at the risk of getting buried under an avalanche as it tries to keep track of them all.

One rule in particular deserves to be retrieved from the heap and rescinded by Obama soon after he's sworn in - a rule revision that would make it easier for coal companies to dump waste from mountaintop removal into rivers, streams and valleys.

The change, approved against the wishes of the Environmental Protection Agency's own scientists, grants companies more leeway to bypass a 25-year-old law that generally forbids them from heaving sludge and debris within 100 feet of any intermittent or permanently flowing stream.

The government already has been too loose in granting special exceptions to the buffer zone. According to Washington Post, the feds estimate that 1,600 miles of streams in Appalachia have been filled since the mid-1980s. Under the rule change, roughly 100 miles of streams would disappear each year.

The change makes a major difference in the lives of people who live in coal-mining communities, and it should also be a concern of people - including Virginians - who live downstream from these mining sites.

White House aides are dismissive of concerns about the rule change. "You're not talking about big, ecologically valuable areas," a senior Bush official told The Post.

That comment speaks volumes about the current administration's understanding of and respect for the environment, not to mention the people reliant on a healthy environment. The Obama administration can begin setting the nation on a better course by swiftly repealing this rule change and strengthening rivers, streams and valleys from mining debris.