Building a Pool from a Lakefront.

When market research showed that campers preferred swimming in a pool to swimming in a lake, Noel Corpuel decided that Camp Wayne, located in Preston Park, Pennsylvania, needed to build a pool. But he hated to give up the natural beauty of Camp Wayne's crystal-clear, spring-fed lake. With a little ingenuity, he found a way to combine the two by converting an area of the lake into a "freshwater" pool.

First, the lake's shallow swimming area was excavated, creating a gentle slope to a depth of four feet. Then, engineers put down a double layer of geotextile fabric to keep the silty bottom from stirring up and followed that with a pool-blue-colored, no-slip vinyl decking. When viewed through the lake's crystal-clear water, it looks just like a pool bottom and campers no longer complain about walking in mud and vegetation.

He installed a bulkhead along the shoreline to give the pool a straight edge, and floating redwood docks make up the other three sides. The 45-by-82-foot pool also has a water basketball hoop and black lane lines with turn boards at each end for lap and competitive swimming.

The best part is that no filtering or chemicals are needed. The natural lake water interchanges with the pool area water, keeping it clean. Twice a week the camp runs a pool vac to sweep up any sand or silt.

"This freshwater pool has everything," says Corpuel, "except eye-stinging and hair-frizzing chlorine."