Thermal water (30.0 to 72.0 degrees Celsius) is produced from 26 wells and 2 springs in the vicinity of Banbury Hot Springs near Buhl, Idaho. Thermal water is used for space heating of private residences, catfish and tropical fish production, greenhouse operation, swimming pools, and therapeutic baths. In 1979, 10 ,300 acre-feet of thermal water was utilized; heat discharged convectively from the geothermal system was about 1.1 x 107 calories per second. Decline in artesian head and discharge apparent in recorder charts from two wells may represent seasonal fluctuations or may reflect aquifer response to development of the resource. Thermal waters sampled are sodium bicarbonate in character and slightly alkaline. Mixing of a hot (72 degrees Celsius) water with local, cooler ground water can be shown from various relations between stable isotopes, chloride, and enthalpy. On the basis of concentration of trituim, age of the waters sampled is at least 100 years an perhaps more than 1,000 years. One water (33 degress Celsius) may be as young as 29 years. On the basis of silica, sodium-potassium-calcium, and sulfate-water geothermometers, best estimate of the maximum reservoir temperature for the thermal waters is between about 70 and 100 degrees Celsius.
