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With summer swim season over, the leader of Somerset's team is worried about another body of water just a few feet from the pool deck.

Sarah Morse is raising questions about the impact the town's renovated and redesigned pool house would have on the Little Falls Branch, a stream running through the eastern portion of the town. The project will create erosion and unacceptable stormwater runoff into Little Falls Branch, which runs along the southeastern edge of Somerset, Morse said.

"I haven't gotten a good explanation from anyone as to why this is the only plan they are considering," said Morse, who is also co-president of the Little Falls Watershed Alliance that oversees the habitat and ecology of the Little Falls Watershed downcounty near the Potomac River.

Town officials, however, said the town has gone beyond requirements for protecting the stream and that the new pool house will be more environmentally friendly to the stream.

The $2.7 million project could expand the pool house's footprint by as much as 3,200 square feet from 2,000 square feet to 5,200 square feet, repair failing portions of the 40-year-old structure, add space for locker rooms and create a covered area for part of the pool deck. Projections from earlier this year put the project's cost at $3.15 million.

Officials have said the building could be lost and the pool closed if action is not taken soon. The Town Council hopes construction will begin at the end of the summer swim season in 2010 after receiving approval from the Planning Board, and that the new pool would be ready for Memorial Day in 2011.

Under current county law the pool house could not be built on its current site, since it is within 150 feet of Little Falls Branch.

Morse said although the pool house is grandfathered into existing law, the town should not increase the building's current footprint. She advocated building vertically and sacrificing pool deck space for the upgrades, since this would not disturb the immediate stream buffer. The town is only protecting the environment to the extent the law requires, Morse also said.

She is particularly concerned about a new building closest to the current pool house on a portion of the existing parking lot, with a basement that could be built within 75 feet of the stream. The basement and foundations for a new structure would disrupt the stream's eastern bank, according to Morse. She also said the adjacent parking lot should be changed to a pervious surface to prevent stormwater runoff.

"The basement is going to flood, it's going to get water in it," Morse said.

Impervious surfaces, such as concrete, prevent rainwater from being absorbed into the ground and often force the rainwater into streams and other natural bodies of water.

"I really feel that the (council) should review what they're doing and find a better way to do it," said Somerset resident Zola Schneider.

But the project does not increase the amount of impervious surface, according to Councilman Alan Proctor, and already requires taking some pool deck space. Proctor said the town is removing parking lot pavement from along the stream edge, planting a 10-foot buffer of vegetation along the stream, and installing larger-than-required stormwater retention facilities. He also said the final decision to build a basement close to the stream bank hasn't been made.

"It's basically exactly the same footprint of impervious surface. We are not moving that at all and we are not moving it any closer to the stream," Proctor said.

While Proctor said the project would improve the facility's environmental friendliness, Mayor Jeffrey Slavin said since the pool house couldn't be relocated, the town had to balance environmental considerations with the need to expand and repair the facility.

"The ideal thing would be not to have the pool and the bathhouse on that site. But since it's there and since the activities there are really important to the town, there has to be some sacrifice to the environment," Slavin said.

Dan Dozier, who is co-president of the Little Falls Watershed Alliance with Morse, said the Alliance itself has not taken an official position on the project's impact, but plans to meet with the town to find out more details.

"It depends on the design and the impact it has on the creek, and the impact the creek has on the facility," Dozier said.