By Claudia Assis : The Herald-Sun

cassis@heraldsun.com

Nov 9, 2002 : 11:56 pm ET

DURHAM -- Interstate 85 is less than a mile away, but a gurgling Eno River drowns out traffic noise completely.

On the rugged, steep banks in the river bend, trees and bushes have been sieving silt from the highway and urban development in the Triangle for decades.

Parks are in the forever business, said Eno River State Park Superintendent Dave Cook, quoting a former boss.

And for generations to come, more than a mile of riverfront and 159 adjacent acres will be protected, as a result of the second largest Eno park land purchase in recent years.

After three years of negotiations, the state recently closed on the land, paying $1.1 million. The tract, east of Pleasant Green Road in Orange County, had belonged to the estate of Margaret Coile.

"The only way to protect the river is to keep it natural and forested around it, and it takes quite a bit of forest to do that," Cook said. "A clean stream is an endangered species … As much as developers try to protect it, the truth is, nobody has developed a technology to do that yet."

The buffer zone now secured is adequate to preserve the Eno’s water quality, Cook said. The Eno is part of the Neuse River basin and provides water for Durham and Orange counties. After flowing into Falls Lake, it also helps provide water to Raleigh.

Scientists have identified 14 rare animals living in and along the Eno River, including the only North Carolina population of the panhandle pebblesnail. According to the state’s Division of Water Quality, the Eno River’s quality is consistently ranked "good" or "excellent."

As in every river or stream in a metropolitan area, runoff is one of the main threats to the Eno. Buffer zones along the river margins work to absorb excess water and filter out pollutants.

The amount of water discharged into the river is also problematic. Storm water washes sand and dirt into rivers, gradually replacing rocky bottoms. Sandy bottoms are unstable, forming a poor habitat for animals and plants because there is little protection from the water flow.

The Coile tract comes with bonuses: two houses, which will become homes for rangers, and a flooded quarry, which could be open for swimmers next summer.

Rocks from the five-acre quarry are believed to have been used for construction of Interstate 85 back in the 1950s and 1960s, but rangers are still seeking more information about the quarry, which is fed by a spring, Cook said. Surrounded by hardwood trees, the quarry is possibly 80 feet deep.

Durham’s Eno River Association mediated the purchase, contacting the Coile estate executors and securing $10,000 for a penalty payment if the state’s plans had fallen through. Making funds available for the penalty gave the Coile estate’s executors more confidence in dealing with the state, said Eno River Association Executive Director Lori Olson.

The association has been buying tracts since the early 1970s, and now about 2,800 acres are protected. It recently closed on five acres on St. Mary’s Road after two years of negotiation.

The association also bought 12 acres off Dimmock’s Mill Road in Hillsborough, next to the Occoneechee Mountain. It hopes to include these tracts in the Eno River State Park in the future.

Eno River State Park rangers are seeking more information about the quarry. Anyone who has worked there or has details about its operation is asked to call Ranger Mark Miller at 383-1686.