Important information about water.

Storing

Disinfecting

Collecting & Conserving

I store my water in washed out 2 litre pop bottles..few drops of regular house bleach...

Also when and if power goes out..fill all of your pots,sink,tubs and any containers you have with water..to use for washing..you can also use the water in your hot water tank(I have read lately it would be ok to dring)

Originally posted by corky52:

My view is that the likely length of this  event is sooner or later going to force most of us to hunt water, lots of water!  The little survival filters aren't going to hack it for very long or be a very comfortable volume.  Do you have a way to move volumes of water easily, it's heavy and bulky to move, and you'll need lots of it.  Can you clean the water and then kill all the bad stuff you can't see?

Fact: Water weighs 8 plus pounds per gallon!  5 gallons of water weighs 40 pounds, remember the pictures of the people with shoulder poles that had small buckets of water at each end, brutal!!

Fact: There are all kinds of crap that end up in free water, most of them nasty and hard to deal with. 

Fact: Viruses are extremely hard to kill in water and we'll be dealing with a virus based threat plus all the normal things.

We need to look beyond storage to purification if this event is as real as we believe.  Simple stuff will make effective purification but you have to have it on hand ahead of time.  You need to look for water sources you'll be able to access and at how you'll move the water to your places. 

Originally posted by bruss01:

I am hoping for a fairly brief crisis, 2-6 months.  Currently we have some store-bought water in jugs for immediate use. We have over 100 gallons of water available in bulk storage. In a long-term emergency, myself and my wife would have to rely on water from our local river (which in time of crisis may be polluted  with untreated sewage or runoff) . So I share your concern about how to purify water on a long term basis.

I'd like to invite you to investigate the  http://www.generalecology.com/portablesystem.htm - First Need water filter that is capable of removing darn near everything you'd find objectionable in water intended for drinking.  You can get replacement cartriges for the unit.  Many friends and I have used these on backpacking trips, the water has always been crystal clear.  One caution -  you need to protect the unit from freezing since the ceramic element can crack if frozen. 

For our bulk storage and for treating any questionable water obtained from an impure source, we plan to use swimming pool shock (calcium hypochlorite) to treat water.  We plan to have 4 barrels of 55 gallon capacity to store "city water", and we will be adding a minimal amount of shock just to give a base level of protection during storage, since the barrels will be sealed and the water changed out for fresh every 6 months.  We will have extra shock on hand for treating non-city water if needed.  We think this is better than bleach because calcium hypochlorite will store in dry form nearly indefinitely (10 years), whereas liquid chlorine bleach loses half of it's potency after a year (use twice as much for the same effect) and is http://theepicenter.com/tow02236.html - next to worthless after two years.

For those who remember Y2K, http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=0010R5 - here's a flashback for you :

"Dry chlorine, also called calcium hypochlorite has the added benefit of extended shelf life. Providing it is kept dry, cool and in an airtight container, it may be stored up to 10 years with minimal degradation. If you want to keep chlorine in larger quantities, this is the item to store (according to Bingo1). It must be ONLY 65% calcium hypochlorite, no addtional anti-fungals or clarifiers. In an EXTREMELY well ventilated area, (Hint: OUTSIDE!) add and dissolve one heaping teaspoon of high-test granular calcium hypochlorite (approximately 1/4 ounce) for each two gallons of water. Five pounds of dry pool bleach costs about $10-15, which will make about 92 gallons of bleach, which will sterilize 706,560 gallons of clear water, or 353,280 gallons of cloudy water. "

http://www.epa.gov/safewater/faq/emerg.html - http://www.epa.gov/safewater/faq/emerg.html

NOW TRY IT! Grr!

Meewee

Quick easy way to get alot of water without hassle

I orignally posted this elsewhere

You can get large plastic tanks online that holds a little up to several hundred gallons and dont really take too much room up.  There is a spigot on the front of them that makes getting the water easy. 

Something like this:

http://www.watertanks.com/category/153/ - http://www.watertanks.com/category/153/

RotroShaggy wrote: This may be a stupid question, but I have never heard of anyone talk about whether or not it is possible for H5N1 to infect the water supply.  Is this possible?  Is it possible for the virus to be transported through our water supply, thereby making it unsafe to drink tapwater?  Just curious.

The H5N1 flu virus can survive at cool temperatures in contaminated manure for about three months. One gram of matter has enough virus to infect 1 million birds and the virus can survive in water for upto 4 days at 22oC and for >30 days at 0 deg C (32 degrees F), if not longer.

I found this on calculating water in an aquarium... same principle I would imagine.

http://www.aquariumfish.net/information/aquarium_arithmetic.htm - http://www.aquariumfish.net/information/aquarium_arithmetic. htm

  Water goes for $5.00 a gallon after an emergency such as Katrina. Here is a link to a good article about emergency water supplies. Best bet is to use new food grade containers designed for water.

Figure 1-2 gallons per day per person. If someone is sick with H5 they will be losing fluids from every opening. They'll need extra.

Prep-On

OOPPS,

http://waltonfeed.com/self/water.html - http://waltonfeed.com/self/water.html

for anybody in the UK, EBAY is good for purchasing water storage containers-i found huge plastic water butts with taps on there for £5.99 each plus £10 each postage,and plastic 5L jerry cans for 55pence.

Maybe EBAY has similar bargains on the pages for other countries too.

I've got a gravity filter with just 4 filters, no extras but they can be cleaned with bleach. Does anybody know if I should boil or use bleach first before filtering and then the filter could take out some of the chlorine taste. Although that might not be a good thing because I read if you can't smell the chlorine then it disapated(sp?) & you need to add some more. I have a 55 gal barrell in the garage, empty. Will bring inside and fill on final prep and several cases of Poland Springs which we use instead of tap water now. For 14 yrs. we had R.O. system w.UV and it was really great water. After hurricane Floyd the water by us was no good and we were the only ones I knew in our town who didn't have to boil it. We moved 6 mo. ago and my dogs got really sick from the city water in the new place, so we had to stop using it. Even boiling didn't help.  Now they're good but we wont use it. Wonder what's really in it that most people are drinking. Yuk.

http://www.pwgazette.com/gravity.htm - http://www.pwgazette.com/gravity.htm

Cheap and quick but should work like a champ.  I've used these filters for years and they are great.  Anything down to sheep puddles will clean up through this rig.  Prefilter with anything handy, coffee filters would be ideal, pour through into main holding tank.

Andy,

The post above yours. Doulton's are hard to beat!

Hi Everyone:  I have about 45 gallons of water stored in drums in the garage.  I figured that was enough because we have a swimming pool - and I was just going to use the water in there (boiled or otherwise purified).

However, just this morning I caught two ducks who had overnighted in the pool.  Major bummer.  Now I am thinking that I need to really store more water because the pool water could easily become contaminated.

Just wanted everyone else to think about this too.

Thanks,

R

Chlorine Bleach: When boiling is not practical, chemical disinfection should be used. Common household bleach contains a chlorine compound that will disinfect water. The procedure to be followed is usually written on the label. When the necessary procedure is not given, find the percentage of available chlorine on the label and use the information in the following tabulation as a guide.

(If strength is unknown, add ten drops per quart of water. Double amount of chlorine for cloudy or colored water or water that is extremely cold.)

The treated water should be mixed thoroughly and allowed to stand, preferably covered, for 30 minutes. The water should have a slight chlorine odor; if not, repeat the dosage and allow the water to stand for an additional 15 minutes. If the treated water has too strong a chlorine taste, it can be made more pleasing by allowing the water to stand exposed to the air for a few hours or by pouring it from one clean container to another several times.

Granular Calcium Hypochlorite. Add and dissolve one heaping teaspoon of high-test granular calcium hypochlorite (approximately 1/4 ounce) for each two gallons of water. The mixture will produce a stock chlorine solution of approximately 500 mg/L, since the calcium hypochlorite has an available chlorine equal to 70 percent of its weight. To disinfect water, add the chlorine solution in the ratio of one part of chlorine solution to each 100 parts of water to be treated. This is roughly equal to adding 1 pint (16 oz.) of stock chlorine to each 12.5 gallons of water to be disinfected. To remove any objectionable chlorine odor, aerate the water as described above.

Chlorine Tablets.Chlorine tablets containing the necessary dosage for drinking water disinfection can be purchased in a commercially prepared form. These tablets are available from drug and sporting goods stores and should be used as stated in the instructions. When instructions are not available, use one tablet for each quart of water to be purified.

It may be a good idea, if you are planning on using chlorine or other chemical disinfectants, to use an activated carbon filter prior to use to filter out the resultant chlorine and carcinogenic THM's. 

Please see below:

Sunset,

You might be able to drill in hole in your galv can and pass a threaded PVC nipple through.  You would silicon both sides and use a pvc nut on each side of the can to sinch up into the silicon.  Let it dry then attach your spickot to the outside.  Drill your hole close to the bottom but leave room for the nut and probably a washer.  I don't know if that would work, I would probably try it on a small (cheap can) if possible so if it does not work you are not out as much.  Someone else may have already made something similar and hopefully can better help.

Delphina, the water will be safe as long as you can boil it. The danger is more if you can't. You can make it safe by mixing in bleach, enough so can smell it a little. Then let it sit for a few hours to make sure the bleach has had time to do its job.

Good luck.

I called my Wal-Mart bakery and they have 3 gallon buckets that they discard after they are done and are for sale for $1.00 each.  Don't know why I didn't call months ago!! Anyway, I was wondering since these are washed would these be good to fill up with water for drinking water?

Thanks!

I was thinking of platic gargage bins new and keeping them in the laundry room.  On wooden skids .  i can fill them from   the laundry facet.

I can fill these  in hours  Thisto me appeared the cheapest way to get water in large quantities

I like the ides of adding a faucit

Or even a childs pool with lid in the basement.  for extra water.  Plus I have bottled water and can juice

Should they be filled now

I did go to Sam's Club this week..they have a Reverse Osmosis Water Filtration Unit that cleans up to 1000 gallons of water ( 4 filters) for less than 160 dollars... Have not done this kind of purchase before... but feel it may be well worth  it .

Rick~very interesting that they are having a Rain Barrel distribution day. I have never heard of this before.

I do have a question for you engineer types. How would you go about constructing your own water barrels out of plastic 55 gallon drums? I know you would need a screen on the top to avoid having bugs and mosquitoes from laying eggs in the water. How would you secure it on the barrel?

Cost comparison for water containers:

gotwater2.com:  350 gal aquatank $189

watertanks.com  325 gal  $489.44

I bought mine from gotwater2.com.  S&H was $21.90 for 2 and excellent service.  They were shipped the day after I ordered.

The tanks sound better than the barrells but I already have 4 55 gallon barrells.

Does the water need to be treated (with chlorine) when filled or as used? - How often must it be emptied and refilled to prevent contamination or can chlorine always be added to keep it usable?

Thanks!

Sheila

Femvet - that helps a great deal, thanks.

-Sheila

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=3651447 - http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=3651447  holds over 5500 gallons  $297.00

How safe is this water for drinking once it has been sitting out in the yard?  What is the best procedure for purifying it to make it drinkable?  I am confused about adding bleach because city water tends to have chlorine in it.  Can someone post simple directions yet again.  There seems to be conflicting information all over and I would love to have one set of directions posted in the house.

Thanks!

-Sheila

sheila~I have been looking for some information about whether or not you need to treat water that already has chlorine in it. I have not found any information on this yet but I will keep looking.
Maybe someone here already knows the answer to this and could post it for us???

Hey folks,

Regarding making water drinkable using dry calcium hypochlorite (aka swimming pool shock) I went back and re-read the formula posted on page 1 of this thread.  It is pretty sketchy, so the http://www.epa.gov/OGWDW/faq/emerg.html - following from the EPA  needs to be added to it -

"Granular Calcium Hypochlorite. Add and dissolve one heaping teaspoon of high-test granular calcium hypochlorite (approximately 1/4 ounce) for each two gallons of water. The mixture will produce a stock chlorine solution of approximately 500 mg/L, since the calcium hypochlorite has an available chlorine equal to 70 percent of its weight. To disinfect water, add the chlorine solution in the ratio of one part of chlorine solution to each 100 parts of water to be treated. This is roughly equal to adding 1 pint (16 oz.) of stock chlorine to each 12.5 gallons of water to be disinfected. To remove any objectionable chlorine odor, aerate the water as described below.

The treated water should be mixed thoroughly and allowed to stand, preferably covered, for 30 minutes. The water should have a slight chlorine odor; if not, repeat the dosage and allow the water to stand for an additional 15 minutes. If the treated water has too strong a chlorine taste, it can be made more pleasing by allowing the water to stand exposed to the air for a few hours or by pouring it from one clean container to another several times. "

Ok, a lot of people don't have a 12.5 gallon container laying around, so let's break it down. To make two gallons of the bleach, one heaping teaspoon of the calcium hypochlorite goes into 2 gallons of water.  To make drinkable water, 2.5 tablespoons of the bleach goes into 1 gallon of water.  Let stand covered 30 minutes, aerate to taste.

Penham - maybe use the pool for your bulk water storage, and treat it on an "as needed" basis, 5 gallons at a time?  Just a thought.

Thanks for this breakdown it is VERY helpful.

You gave us a formula for bleach and for drinkable water.  What is the formula for bleach/water for disinfecting (goggles. shoes, etc.)

Thanks again!

-Sheila

Also, the best deal I have found on 55 gallon fda approved water barrels is at South Summit --

http://www.southsummit.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=49 - http://www.southsummit.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=49