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If you have been reading this column over the years, the idea or concept of geothermal heat won't be a new one to you because I have talked about it several times in the past.

In the years to come, you will no doubt hear a lot more about it as people and governments look for alternative energy sources.

The concept is quite simple, the deeper you go underground into the earth's crust the hotter it gets, so why not tap into that and use some of that heat to heat our buildings on the surface.

In 2006, John Williston had a geothermal heating system installed in his new home in the Niven Lake subdivision.

To accomplish this they had to drill some holes down 95 meters to tap into a warm enough area. As far as I know this was the first geothermal project in the NWT and it is interesting that a private individual did it.

In Yellowknife, we have two abandoned mines that have extensive workings underground and as they flood they will contain large reserves of warm water. Con mine goes down approximately 1,980 meters and Giant mine 1,066 meters.

The city, in conjunction with Professor Mory Gomshei of UBC, is currently building a demonstration plant at Con Mine to see how well capturing the geothermal heat from the mine would work. If it works well, a significant portion of Yellowknife could eventually be heated from the mine.

An added benefit of this proposal is that the Robertson Head Frame might be saved and used as part of the geothermal project and for a proposed research centre.

Other areas in town could drill their own geothermal heat wells and a geothermal heat plant could be built at Giant Mine to heat the town site and other buildings there.

Other towns in the NWT could also eventually be using geothermal heat for some of their energy needs. So, the city should be applauded for investigating the geothermal potential of Con Mine.

Speaking of applause, Ron's Auto Service should also be congratulated for setting up a water recycling system at their new shop on Kam Lake Road.

We don't have any shortage of water in the Yellowknife area but delivering that water to the industrial area is expensive and it uses up a lot of energy.

Ron's uses a lot of water to pressure wash vehicles so they decided to drill a couple of wells to get ground water and then set up a filtration system so they can reuse that water.

To fully understand the benefits of this, one must look at the energy used to provide water conventionally through the city system.

Water is pumped from the Yellowknife River to the city water treatment plant on School Draw. It goes through the treatment plant and is then pumped through the city's water system to a transfer point where it is pumped into a water truck.

The truck then delivers the water to the site at Kam Lake and it is pumped from the truck into a holding tank.

So all those steps are eliminated and that amounts to an energy savings. After the water gets used, normally it would be pumped into a sewage holding tank.

From there it gets pumped into a sewage truck, driven to a sewage transfer point and then pumped through the city's sewer system to Fiddler Lake.

By recycling the water, that stage is also eliminated, adding to the savings.

Geothermal heat, private water recycling systems, these are both good changes and hopefully there are more to come from private and government efforts.

- Walt Humphries is a well-known Yellowknife artist and prospector