Triangle Greenways Council has purchased three undeveloped properties in Durham that will help protect the region’s water quality and could provide future corridors for public trails.

TGC’s purchase of the two tracts along Chunky Pipe Creek – 23 acres and 7.7 acres – will safeguard the land in an unspoiled state until greenway and trail plans can be carried out, officials said.

Chunky Pipe Creek is designated as a future Durham greenway corridor and is intended to ultimately connect to the cross-state Mountains-to-Sea Trail on nearby property owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The third property, of just under 11 acres, is not currently included in Durham’s greenway planning but could  be incorporated in public trail-building due to its location – within the Falls Lake watershed district and near the Corps of Engineers-protected land, officials said.

Three landowners, who recognized the importance of preserving water quality, agreed to sell the land tracts to TGC at below-market prices for conservation.

Funding for TGC’s recent purchases came from the Upper Neuse Clean Water Initiative, a coalition of six conservation organizations that protect land in order to safeguard drinking water sources in the Upper Neuse River Basin.