Saving water, she lives by rules she helped shape

RALEIGH -- Don't blame Mary Brice for watering her lawn on the wrong day.

She doesn't even own a sprinkler.

What little water she does use outdoors is likely to come from the rain barrel that catches runoff from her roof.

"I'm OK with a natural look," Brice says. She needed little adjustment to Raleigh's year-round, alternate-day restrictions on lawn watering, which began last week.

Those who must now change their habits have her to thank, or resent.

Brice, 40, who lives in West Raleigh and has a toddler daughter and twins on the way, helped push for the water-saving steps. She was co-chairwoman of the water conservation task force that recommended the rules to the Raleigh City Council last year, just as the Triangle was emerging from a months-long drought.

The council approved the panel's proposal for alternate-day lawn irrigation in May, just as the region was teetering on the edge of its third drought in five years.

Brice has the right credentials for a seat on the conservation panel: Water is her business. She's a civil engineer who specializes in the design of water and sewer systems.

David Knight, the first chairman of the task force, recommended Brice and another member, Vic D'Amato, to lead the panel after he stepped down in 2005.

"I felt that she brought an objective, fresh perspective to the issue," says Knight, director of government relations for the Nature Conservancy in North Carolina. "It's part of the long-term conservation issue that it be a part of the way people live."

Passion to conserve

Brice also brought to the position a quiet passion for conservation in her private life that some people might think borders on the extreme.

The 1970s-era home she shares with her husband, Kevin, has a backyard big enough to delight their 2-year-old daughter, Jackie. They just don't water it. The previous owner planted landscaping that does well without much water.

Brice figures that with the region's usually ample rainfall -- averaging 42 inches a year -- she should grow plants that don't require more.

"Heck, I live in North Carolina," she says. "I really shouldn't buy plants if they're going to need water regularly.

"If it can't grow here, it doesn't need to be in my yard."

Balance in policy

Yet on the conservation panel, she steered for middle ground.

"Mary did a really good job of keeping everything balanced," said Yevonne Brannon, a former Wake County commissioner who served on the water committee. "She kept her cards to herself."

Brannon said there was a lot of give and take on a panel that included residents and representatives from water-intensive industries ranging from Pepsi to landscapers.

"Everyone learned from each other," she said. "I think all of us were conservationists by the end."

Brice's commitment isn't just for water.

She drives a fuel-efficient Prius, shuns paper towels, totes cloth grocery bags, keeps her thermostat at 76 in summer, 68 in winter and has swapped out all her incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent ones that consume far less energy.

She frets over packaging that can't be recycled. She buys eggs only in cardboard cartons and feels guilty when the Chinese takeout comes in styrofoam containers instead of paper ones.

But she can measure, and control, the water use in her home. Except for a troublesome leaky toilet last winter, Brice and her family aren't using much water indoors.

The dishwasher is run only when full. The washing machine is a water-saving front loader. The toilets and showers are strictly low flow.

Brice need only look to her water bill for evidence. A quick analysis she did last week showed that the family of three was using an average of about 50 gallons a day, significantly less than the 100 gallons per person usually applied for average daily consumption.