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Geothermal leak reported in downtown Boise


The city says the site is located near Capitol Boulvard and Myrtle. Lane closures are expected. (City of Boise)
The city says the site is located near Capitol Boulvard and Myrtle. Lane closures are expected. (City of Boise)
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Another geothermal leak has been reported in downtown Boise.

The city says the site is located near Capitol Boulevard and Myrtle. Two lanes of traffic have been closed as crews work.

The city's Public Works Department tells me they were able to catch the leak pretty quickly and get to work. It's unclear what caused the failure.

There's no estimate of when the lanes will be back open but officials say these repairs usually take about a day.

This is the third leak in Boise in recent months. The first was just down Capitol near Main Street. Earlier this week, a geothermal leak was reported at Boise High.

Colin Hickman with Public Works says these back to back leaks are unusual and the city is working to figure out exactly what's causing them.

"Part of the problem that we see is that the geothermal system is an older system," Hickman said. "A lot of the original pipes were put in in the mid 80's and so those are 30 some odd year old pipes and some of them are like a concrete material and so it's just aging infrastructure that's buried and so the city really wants to be proactive about replacing that and anytime there is a leak where it's unanticipated or when there's another construction project underway we'll go in there and replace that with a new fiber glass pipe material."

Hickman says to help prevent these leaks they also fly over the city with an infrared camera to detect hot spots.

He says the city is proud of the system which heats more than 90 downtown buildings with renewable geothermal energy. The city plans on expanding but wants to do everything it can to make sure the system is as reliable as possible.


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