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Concern about construction's impact on water quality in Clarksburg is leading planners to ask Montgomery County to look for an alternate site for the county's new bus maintenance depot.

Planners want the county to delay the project and all others in the sensitive Ten Mile Creek watershed until they can develop a strategy for protecting the watershed.

The Montgomery County Planning Board has scheduled a hearing Thursday to discuss whether development should proceed in the next phase of Clarksburg's development.

The 1994 Clarksburg Master Plan states that the town should grow from a population of about 2,000 to nearly 40,000 in stages over the next 20 years as water, sewer and environmental targets are met.

The latest annual water quality report, released in February, found that water quality in the environmentally sensitive Clarksburg community is no longer considered excellent due to high levels of construction.

Ten Mile Creek supplies drinking water, and along with other high-quality stream systems has been designated a Special Protection Area.

The master plan describes the nearly 3,500 acres in the Ten Mile Creek district as "environmentally sensitive, including extensive woodlands, fragile stream banks and steep slopes."

A large portion of the district lies west of Interstate 270, including the bus depot site and land south of the depot, and some lies east of Interstate 270 in the town's historic district, said Ron Cashion, an urban designer with the county Planning Board.

Planners will ask the Planning Board to defer action on permitting construction in the Ten Mile Creek area until the master plan can be amended to provide adequate protection for the creek.

"The amendment is so we can look at the whole area comprehensively with the goal to protect the whole area of the Ten Mile Creek," Cashion said.

Planners will ask the county to fund a two-year study of ways to incorporate new environmental approaches that best protect the environment and meet the building goals.

The bus depot is the only project proposed for the Ten Mile Creek area west of I-270. The zone is also slated to have houses on large lots, Cashion said.

The 200,000-square-foot bus depot is slated for a site on Whelan Lane near the Montgomery County Correctional Facility. Higher-than-expected cost has already delayed the project until 2013.

The new bus depot will allow the county to expand bus service north of Gaithersburg, County Councilwoman Nancy Floreen (D-At large) of Garrett Park told the Clarksburg Civic Association last winter. No other sites are under consideration, she said.

The depot will feature parking for 250 Ride On buses, a fleet services facility to maintain the buses and a highway maintenance facility to replace depots in Derwood and Poolesville. The fleet services depot will house 90 pieces of heavy highway maintenance equipment.