Marie Cefalo is the supervisor for Cary, NC’s water conservation program, which takes a three-pronged approach: education, financial incentives, and regulatory measures. The program was born in 1996 of short-term capacity issues and now focuses on long-term water resource management. Outreach initiatives include a comprehensive website, a fix-a-leak week campaign, free water audits, landscaping workshops, and a grassroots block leader outreach. Other initiatives include a turf buy-back program.
Cary was the first North Carolina municipality to pump treated wastewater to homes and businesses for irrigation and cooling. Rain sensors are required on automatic irrigation systems. The town requires separate irrigation meters. Cary sells rain barrels at cost. The town has a tiered rate structure and water use restrictions. Success is in the numbers: the average residential gallons per capita per day, adjusted for weather, has been reduced from 75 in 1996, to 55 gallons per capita per day in 2012.
What Attracted Her to the Water Efficiency Field
Cefalo majored in history and earned a secondary teaching certificate from Davidson College in North Carolina, and then earned an M.A. in teaching from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. She started in Cary’s water conservation program in 1998, fueled by a lifelong strong conservation ethic and a love of the outdoors.
“Being able to help others preserve and protect our environment really lights me up,” she says. “It just so happened that my background in teaching and environmental stewardship coalesced at a time when Cary was developing the public outreach component of its water conservation program.”
How She Spends Her Days
Cefalo spends her days administering, evaluating, and modifying the program. She oversees Spruce, which connects citizen volunteers to beautification, litter reduction, and environmental service projects, as well as long-term resource planning.
What She Likes About Her Job
“The town of Cary has a culture of conservation,” says Cefalo. The trained educator enjoys finding ways to enhance that culture by developing programs that match the community’s interests and needs. “Developing lessons for schools and civic groups has been my greatest love,” she says.
Cefalo finds working with customers one-on-one is the most effective way to spread the water conservation message. It often starts with a water audit, prompted by a customer’s concern over a high water bill. The audit reveals the leak source–such as a toilet–and opens the door for education.
“We can help them better understand the difference between the current toilets and how much water they use versus the older toilets,” explains Cefalo. “We’re really excited about an automated meter infrastructure system with personal Web portals for our customers, Aquastar. They can look up information online down to their hourly usage. We’re going to see an increase in interest in using water wisely. They will see for themselves where they have the leak, exactly how much water is used, exactly how much their dishwasher uses, how long their teenagers stay in the shower.”
Her Biggest Challenge
“Our greatest challenge is reaching people who don’t have that particular interest, sensitivity, or awareness about water conservation and making them understand the importance of using water wisely, not only for the short-term, but for the community’s long-term health,” notes Cefalo. For Cefalo, that means navigating the program needs to maintain a consistent drum beat about the importance of wise water use and also continually refresh its three components.
Example: Cary’s online video game, “Don’t Drown the Ground”, is water conservation’s answer to “Angry Birds”. Players are encouraged to save ladybugs being drowned by a hose that’s flooding the ground. The game is now in its third iteration. Another case in point is the high-efficiency toilet rebate program, which has been in place since 2008 and was subsequently modified.
“When we started that program, the big box home improvement stores only had a couple of WaterSense-certified toilets,” she says. “Now nearly everything they carry, with the exception of a few toilets, is WaterSense-certified. So when the customer goes into the store, they’re going to be buying a Water Sense-certified toilet.”