COMMUNITY COMMENTARY:

Excuse me? In the Daily Pilot’s article (“Report not necessary, city says,” Jan. 24) about Defend the Bay suing to invalidate a recent Development Agreement between the City of Newport Beach and the Irvine Company, Bob Caustin lets it be known that he hopes “to achieve making water quality a priority for the City Council ”

Wow. I have great respect for Caustin and Defend the Bay, but to claim water quality isn’t a priority for the city and its council is just plain wrong.

The Development Agreement itself does something we’ve never done — it requires the full retrofitting of the irrigation systems in Newport Center with the highest-tech controls and sprinklers out there to minimize or eliminate irrigation runoff that causes pollution citywide. If every development, HOA, home, park and median strip were equipped as Newport Center will be, we’d see dramatic reductions in runoff.

In his comments, Bob seems to be unaware of the resources the city has focused on water quality. The city has emphasized the enforcement of our water quality laws, keeping businesses, mobile detailers, and maintenance companies honest with citations. In 2004, we received a coveted “Beach Buddy” award from the National Resources Defense Council, the only city in California that got one that year.

We have funded new improvements in and around Newport Island, leading to a 33% improvement in “beach mile days” where the bay beaches are posted for bacteria levels.

To shield dolphin breeding grounds off Crystal Cove, we have protected Morning Canyon from erosion and funded a water quality improvement project for Buck Gully.

To fix water quality problems at Big Canyon Creek, we are underway with a $6- to $7-million project that will use natural systems to reduce contaminants from that drainage into the Upper Bay, similar to the state-of-the-art bioswale we constructed that naturally improves water quality going into the Lower Bay near Hoag Hospital.

The city is working with upstream cities to help solve sediment problems at the source so that Upper Newport Bay and the Lower Newport Bay can see lower levels of sediment, nutrients and toxic pollutants coming down from Irvine, Lake Forest and other communities in our watershed.

We have also stressed the importance of finishing the Upper Bay dredging project, a critical effort that will improve the flushing of the bay and restore habitat for diverse species of flora and fauna.

Finally, the city’s taxpayers have also contributed more than $2.5 million to the new Back Bay Science Center, home to a state-of-the-art Water Quality lab that will advance water quality science statewide, if not nationwide.

Those are hardly the actions of a community (and City Council) that doesn’t consider water quality a priority.

As for Bob’s suggestions (in other forums, admittedly) that we stop relying on his father in law, Jack Skinner, for so much good water quality research, we’ll take Skinner’s invaluable advice for as long as he’s willing to give it.

Nancy Gardner is a city councilwoman in Newport Beach.