50 States, 50 Fixes

They’re in Hot Water in Idaho. Here’s Why That’s a Good Thing.

Nearly 500 buildings in the state capital get their heat from a clean, renewable source located deep in the ground.

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Kirkham Hot Springs in Boise National Forest.

By Cara Buckley

Photographs and Video by Alex Hecht

It’s pretty easy to get into hot water in Boise. After all, it’s in Idaho, a state filled with hundreds of hot springs.

The city has tapped into that naturally hot water to create the largest municipally run geothermal system in the country.

Nearly 500 Boise businesses, government buildings and homes — as well as hospital and university buildings, City Hall and a Y.M.C.A. — are warmed by heat drawn directly from hot water reservoirs, or aquifers, below ground. The Idaho Statehouse, in Boise, is the only one in the United States to use geothermal heat. The heat even warms some sidewalks in the winter, to melt the snow, and raises the temperature in hot tubs.

50 States, 50 Fixes is a series about local solutions to environmental problems. More to come this year.