The Bush administration is proposing to ease restrictions on dumping mountaintop mining waste near rivers and streams. The Interior Department is moving forward in rewriting a 1983 regulation that bars coal mining companies from dumping huge waste piles within 100 feet of any stream if the disposal affects water quality or quantity. Joan Mulhern of Earthjustice said, “The new rule will allow coal companies to dump massive waste piles directly into streams, permanently burying them.”