Water Storage & Purification

INTRODUCTION

This page will review a presentation we give about Water Storage, Water Pumping/Siphoning, and Water Filtering. If you ask 10 different people about water storage you will most likely get 10 different answers.  There are many good ways to store water.  Here you will hear what I have learned.

Dan has stored water at his home for about 50 years.

QUESTIONS

To start, I have some questions for all of you. We know that your age, health, gender, activity level, and weight can affect how long you live. How would you prioritize the following list of items?

• Electricity for your home
• Cell Phone
• Air
• Food
• Water

Out of all the things we can store, WATER is the most important thing that needs to be considered when storing emergency supplies.

The standard for water storage is 1 gallon of water per person per day

WATER STORAGE

There are many ways to get water, or store water at home. We can collect rain water. But don’t collect the water that runs off your roof.  Imagine all the bird droppings, dust, and dirt on your roof.

Did you know there is a big canal a little over a mile east of here? – The Fannin McFarland Aqueduct – Filled with millions of gallons of water. – In an emergency a person might consider connecting a long rope to a 5 gallon bucket, and dip water from the canal.

Some of you have swimming pools – Ok for bathing, or flushing a toilet, but not for drinking.  And, most of us do not have a swimming pool.

Hot Water Heater – Ok for bathing, flushing toilet, drinking, but there are only a few gallons in a hot water heater.

Water Beds: Years ago some of us used to have water beds.  Due to the chemicals the water is ok for flushing a toilet, but not for drinking.

The most common and efficient way to store water at home is in different sizes of containers. Four very common sizes are 16.9 oz plastic bottles, 1 gallon plastic bottles, 5-gallon plastic bottles, and 55 gallon plastic drums.

• 16.9 oz size – Water costs between $1.00 to $1.10 per gallon.
• 1 gallon size – From $1.30 to $1.40 per gallon.
• 5 gallon – From $13 to $40 for 1 empty 5 gallon bottle – Fill it at home for 10 cents (2 cents per gallon).
• 55 gallon drum – New from $80 to $130 – Used from $10 to $50 – Fill it at home for $1. Usually blue barrels are better than white barrels – Less light gets in.
  • If you get the 55 gallon drums you will need a bung tool – $10-20.  This is used to remove the screw-in caps.
  • Even with a dolly you are most likely not going to be able to easily move a 55 gallon drum – They are very heavy.

WATER PUMPING AND SIPHONING

How can you get your water out of your larger containers? For some of you even a 5 gallon water bottle is difficult to carry and get water out of. You can use a piece of water hose or plastic tubing – Suck on it like we used to siphon gasoline out of a car gas tank – Cheapest – But, depending on how long the water has been in the barrel, you might get a mouthful of bacteria or contaminated water.

Another option is a water pump – Pumps come in many different types and qualities. There are thin plastic pump models – $30-40 – But, they break easy. There are better quality pump models – $50 and higher. There has to be a better and cheaper way to get water out of a large barrel – Well, there is.

·May I introduce you to an amazing product known as the Shake Siphon, the Shaker Siphon, the Jiggler Siphon, the Quick Shake Siphon, or the Simple Siphon. Prices vary between $7-17 each at Walmart, Home Depot, Amazon, eBay, Ace Hardware, and many other businesses. Or, you can buy just the copper piece for $4-5 each, and get ½ inch ID viny tubing at Home Depot or Amazon (38-41 cents per foot).

Another option for the 55 gallon barrels is to have a heavy duty water spigot installed down near the bottom – And, it is recommended that you use what is called an RV (Recreation Vehicle) Lead free water hose.

Now that you have the water out of your barrel, you may, or may not want to drink it.  It all depends on how long the water has been in the barrel, and whether or not it has been stored outside in the sun.

WATER FILTERING

So now you have your 5 year old water out of the barrel, or you went about a mile east of here and got water out of the canal. –  Do you feel comfortable drinking it as it is?

The cheapest and simplest way to make water safe to drink is to boil it for about a minute or two.

You can put chemicals into the water to kill the bacteria – Such as chlorine bleach in the right amount – iodine tablets – or other chemicals – These might make the water safe to drink – But, the water will usually not smell very good or look very good.

Years ago you may have heard of Halazone tablets – 1 small bottle on eBay currently goes for about $25 – One bottle is only good for a few gallons – Once the bottle has been opened the tablets are only effective for about 3 days.

You can use shortwave ultraviolet light to disinfect water – UV Light Home System usually costs $1000 or more – Must be careful dealing with shortwave ultraviolet light.

Another choice is to filter the water. There are two basic types of filters– Gravity fed filters and Pressure fed filters. For any filter to be effective most people and organizations recommend that the water filter be able to filter out anything 1 micron or larger in size.

For gravity fed filters – Just pour water in the top – Wait a very long time for the water to come out the bottom – Usually these do not filter out a lot of the small bacteria.