>> Howdy, Aggies. Gage Duffin here.
I'm just your average Aggie.
Doing my thing, going to school,
learning stuff, meeting people.
These days, I'm the host of Aggies Underground,
keeping my eyes peeled for
the obscure and unseen places within the purview of USU.
Thus far, I've fed a baby cow,
made my own chocolate bar,
yelled from the top of the bell tower,
and we've just scratched the surface of
the hidden gems that this place has to offer.
All right, Aggies. By popular request.
Today, we're going literally underground here at USU.
Let's go.
[MUSIC].
I'm standing on a ventilation shaft
directly above one of the many underground steam tunnels,
which travel for two miles under campus.
The tunnels are home to
an incredibly complex system of steam pipes,
all branching from the USU central energy plant.
The reason you aren't sweating in
class is because of this system.
It's basically just a giant centralized AC on steroids.
Now I want to see what's going on down here
[MUSIC].
I'm meeting Reid Olsen down here.
He's the Manager of the Central Energy Plant here at USU.
While most of us are up on our classrooms,
he's down here in the tunnels checking on the pipes
in doing regular maintenance
to make sure everything's working properly.
Some sketchy noises down here.
Nice to meet you, Reid. I'm Gage.
>> Great to meet you Gage.
>> Thank you for having me here today. I appreciate it.
What exactly is going on down here?
>> We're providing heating and cooling here on campus.
We have steam on
the one side of the tunnel that provides the heating
and chilled water on
the other side that we provide cooling for the campus.
This stuff is fairly new
and we do have some tunnels that are over 100 years old.
>> Oh, wow.
>> That we are still using today.
>> OK. I don't have to go in there, right?
>> Yeah, we do.
>> We can go in there.
>> Go ahead.
>> Is it unlocked?
>> Yeah. Ahh, I hate this.
>> First impression is not as
creepy but initially opening a door.
You've said is as old as the university.
>> This was built when animal science
and theology were built, which
are two of the original buildings built here [MUSIC].
This is the interesting part I like.
This is actually an old wood pipe,
though it used to be
held together with just wire wrapping.
>> What would happen in the event of a pipe bursting?
>> In our other tunnels,
we actually did have our chilled waterline break,
having 2,000 gallons per minute coming down the tunnel.
But the tunnels are big it
only got like four inches deep.
>> Where does all of the water come?
>> Chilled water comes from the
plant original starts out there.
But we've got a two million gallon tank
under Legacy Field that we
charge up at night and use
that chilled water to cool campus during the day.
Just like in a cave where you've got leaks,
you get stalactites,
and you've got the ones coming up from the bottom.
>> That's cool. We're out of here.
>> I know where I am. I used to live right there. We should just leave it open.
You don't want any of the new freshmen
getting any ideas [NOISE].
Thank you so much for taking me down there,
Reid. I really appreciate it.
>> It is my pleasure.
We'd love to show off our facilities here
and hope people understand
how much work goes underground,
as well above ground.
>> Absolutely. There you have it Aggies.
We finally went through the tunnels you've
been asking me for us to do so much.
It was a million dollar experience,
I wouldn't pay a dime to do again.
Thanks for watching. [MUSIC]