Yesterday the Seattle Times published an opinion piece by Bruce Babbitt, former secretary of the Interior, in which Babbitt denounces the supporters of Pebble Mine, a project proposed for Alaska’s Bristol Bay.

“The question of whether to build a massive copper mine in the heart of the planet’s largest wild sockeye salmon fishery has a simple answer: no,” Babbit writes. “Pebble is the wrong mine in absolutely the wrong place.”

This week, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is likely to thumb its nose at the widespread support of Bristol Bay’s fishermen, who fear the long-term effects of toxic mining waste at the headwaters of their historic fishery.

While thousands of Bristol Bay fishermen are taking advantage of a banner fishing year and the opportunity to supply the world with half its wild salmon, the House committee’s Water Resources Subcommittee today held an oversight hearing on EPA’s 404(c) authority with no witnesses from Bristol Bay. EPA has declared Pebble a risk too great under the Clean Water Act.

Whatever you think of the EPA in general, if you’re a fisherman or enjoy eating wild fish, you most certainly should care about clean water. And for that matter, you should be concerned about these attempts at undermining federal oversight of clean water and fisheries.

Last week I wrote about Louisiana’s senators attempting to push through two bills that would strip the Gulf of Mexico management council of its authority to oversee red snapper quota, all because sport fishermen believe they are getting a raw deal and despite the fact that the council has gone above and beyond to address their concerns.

Our federal management system is far from perfect, but we risk losing all the ground we’ve recovered on our middling reputation with the public (read: seafood buyers) if we keep stripping away the government’s ability to ensure that our fleets have quota to fish and clean waters in which to catch our food.