Clean-water money to aid land purchases

RALEIGH -- Six Triangle Land Conservancy projects in Chatham, Durham, Orange and Wake counties have been awarded a total of $5.38 million by the N.C. Clean Water Management Trust Fund board.

The six projects will conserve 1,100 acres with a total appraised valued of about $21 million, according to a news release from the organization.

The largest award, $3.27 million, went to the Brumley Tract/Stony Creek project in Orange County. The Triangle Land Conservancy is buying the 606-acre tract for about $5 million, a bargain price for land valued at $12.25 million.

The two Wake County projects approved for clean-water money are:

* $744,000 for acquisition of the 156-acre Walnut Hill tract as part of the Mark's Creek Rural Lands Initiative in partnership with Wake County and The Trust for Public Land. This project will maintain and improve water quality in Mark's Creek and the Neuse River by buffering 1.6 miles of streams. It will also ensure continued agricultural production, protect wildlife habitat and provide a future public recreation resource currently absent in that part of Wake County, according to the news release.

Wake County will add $1.3 million for the project from its Open Space Fund. The Williamson family will be credited with a bargain sale donation of $496,000 for selling the property below market value.

* $300,000 to conserve the 38-acre Futrell tract on Swift Creek between Cary and Raleigh, in partnership with Cary, Raleigh and Wake County. The project will provide significant water quality benefits to Wake County by protecting 3,000 feet of streams feeding Swift Creek. The seller, local developer Glenn Futrell, received approval to subdivide the tract into three parcels in 2005. Rather than developing the land, with an appraised value of $1.9 million, he offered it for conservation at a price of $700,000.