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Chapter 3

Water Sources, Purification and Storage

“We never know the worth of water till the well is dry.”

Thomas Fuller

The average person can survive without water for 2 days in temperatures of 120 degrees and 10 days in temperatures of 50 degrees. When you are active and exposed to hot weather, the body requires close to one gallon of water a day. Cold weather can be nearly as challenging because cold air dehydrates the body as you breathe. Cold also robs your body of moisture through exposed skin.

The bare minimum for water requirements in an emergency situation is 28 gallons a month per person. This is inclusive of two quarts of drinking water and two quarts of bathing and clean-up water. Considering the average person uses between 1,500 and 2,400 gallons of water each month during normal times, the estimate of 28 gallons is an admittedly frugal recommendation and is purely for bare necessity purposes due to storage issues. If you have your heart set on filling a bathtub now and then, you should store more. Much more!

At the very least, one month’s worth of water should be stored for each member of your family or group, but that’s with the proviso there is a nearby water source and you have a quality water purifier available to process water for drinking, cooking, and clean-up.

Warning: Even the best of water purifiers will not filter fallout material in contaminated water. Refer to Fallout Filtering Methods later in this chapter.

Water Storage

It is important to store water safely, otherwise you could put aside enough water to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool and still be outside the safe zone. The following are methods to safely store water for drinking:

Chlorine Bleach

Bleach that contains a 5.25% solution of sodium hypochlorite and does not contain soap additives or phosphates can be added to water for long-term storage. Use a ratio of 1/8 teaspoon of chlorine bleach for each gallon of water.

2% Tincture of Iodine

Stored water requires 12 drops of iodine for each gallon of water. Warning: Pregnant women and those suffering with thyroid disease or other health risks should not drink water treated with iodine without first consulting a physician. If you are unsure whether or not you are allergic to iodine, do not use this method.

Ion

Ion is another method to preserve water. It is made of stabilized oxygen. Use 20 drops of ion per gallon of water.

Water storage should be changed approximately every 6 months, but in an emergency, treated water that has been left in containers longer is still safe to drink. When stored water tastes flat, pour it from one container to another a few times. This will re-oxygenate the water and make it more palatable.

Water Storage Methods

Water storage containers come in 5, 7, 15, and 55-gallon sizes and everything in between. If your budget has little wriggle room, you can store water in two-liter pop bottles. Do not store water in old milk cartons. They are biodegradable and will begin to break down within 6 months. Any leakage can destroy food storage items it comes in contact with.

No matter if your backyard butts up to one of the Great Lakes, or you are fortunate enough to have a well, it is advisable to keep 2 weeks worth of stored water in your home both for convenience sake and for the ability to remain in your home when conditions are unsafe. A few good examples would be a nuclear event or looting in your vicinity has reached dangerous levels.

Alternate Water Sources

Be prepared for water supply lines to be disrupted during an emergency. It is important that you research your immediate vicinity for an alternate water source like a lake, river, creek, or even a stagnant pond, for stagnant pond water can be ran through a quality water filter for safe drinking water (Refer to the next section: Water Purifiers). With luck, you will find a water source close by because a 7-gallon container of water weighs 56 lbs. If you live a good distance away from a water source, shop around for a pull cart, or consider a less expensive child’s wagon, as this will make hauling water much easier. Determine the easiest way to access the water source, so when the time comes, you will be prepared to get in and out with less effort.

If you live in a small space where storing water would be challenging or impossible, then it’s time to get creative. A king-sized waterbed holds 180 gallons of water, a queen-size waterbed holds 158 gallons, and a twin size holds 90 gallons. As long as you have a water siphon, collapsible water containers, and bleach, iodine of tincture, or ion for purification, you have solved the problem of providing for the single most important item in your preparedness arsenal: water. At least for the short-term…

In an extreme emergency, you can consume the water stored in a hot water heater. Make sure the power is off before you begin, as hot water heaters are wired to 220. Next, turn off the water intake valve at the bottom of the heater. You may have to turn on a hot water faucet from somewhere else in the house to get the water to flow. Sediment may be found in the water, but in an emergency, letting it settle to the bottom of a container and purifying it will make it drinkable.

You can also access water from the water pipes in your house. To do this, turn on the faucet located at the highest level of your home. This will allow air to enter the plumbing and you can collect it from a faucet on the lowest level of your home.

In a real pinch, you can use the water stored in the reservoir of your toilet tank—not the bowl—which brings to mind the very best water purifier.

Water Purifiers

Water purifier capabilities vary greatly. Be certain you purchase a water purifier capable of filtering out the following: pathogenic bacteria, parasites, herbicides, pesticides, organic solvents, VOCs, and heavy metals such as cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, mercury, aluminum as well as nitrates. They should also be capable of clearing out cloudiness, silt, sediment, foul tastes and odors.

The best water purifiers will do all this without removing the beneficial minerals your body needs. Clearly, this is a tall order and why this is an instance where you cannot afford to scrimp, as survival without a reliable source of water is an impossibility. I personally recommend either the Berkey or Katadyn. The manufacturer will tell you how many gallons can be processed though the water purifier before the filter(s) must be changed. You can calculate what your water purifier filter needs will be by adding the number of people in your family or group into monthly gallon requirements, then multiply that by the number of months you are planning for preparedness. Next, pencil in Murphy’s Law, and throw in a few more filter replacements!

If you are a consummate procrastinator, and are caught in an emergency without a water purifier, or in the event of nuclear fallout where water purifiers are not sufficient, refer Three Ways to Purify Water without a Water Purifier and Fallout Water Purification found below.

Three Ways to Purify Water without a Water Purifier

The following instructions are for purifying water from alternate sources once your water storage has been exhausted

In addition to having a bad odor and taste, contaminated water can contain microorganisms that cause diseases such as dysentery, cholera, typhoid and hepatitis. Because of this, you should purify all water of uncertain purity before using it for drinking, food preparation, or hygiene use.

There are several ways to purify water. Before purifying, let any suspended particles settle to the bottom, or strain the water through layers of paper towel or a clean, absorbent cloth.

Three easy purification methods are outlined below. These measures will kill microbes but will not remove other contaminants such as heavy metals, salts, most other chemicals, nor will it rid water of radioactive fallout.

Purifying Water without a Commercial Water Filter

Boiling is the safest method for purifying water. Bring water to a rolling boil for at least one minute and let it cool. Boiled water will taste better if you put oxygen back into it by pouring it back and forth between two containers.

Chlorine Bleach can be used to kill microorganisms. Add 1/8 teaspoon of bleach to each gallon of water, stir and let stand for at least 30 minutes.

Purification Tablets release chlorine or iodine. They are inexpensive and available at most sporting goods stores and some drugstores. Follow the package directions. Usually one tablet is enough to purify 1 liter of water. Double the recommended dose for cloudy water.

Water Distillation for Microbes, Heavy Metals, Salt and Chemicals

While the three methods described above will remove only microbes from water, the following purification method will remove microbes, heavy metals, salts and most chemicals.

Distillation involves boiling water and then collecting the vapor that condenses. The condensed vapor will not include salt and other impurities. To distill, fill a pot halfway with water. Tie a cup to the handle on the pot’s lid, turning the lid upside down, so that the cup will hang right-side-up when the lid is upside-down. Put the lid on the pot (make sure the cup is not dangling into the water), and boil the water for 20 minutes. The water that drips from the lid into the cup is distilled.

Fallout Water Purification

Water itself cannot become radioactive, but it can be contaminated by radioactive fallout material. For safe drinking water that may have been contaminated with fallout, follow the directions below:

Making a fallout water filter starts with two 5-gallon food storage buckets. You will need to punch holes in the bottom of one bucket to allow water to flow through into the next to capture the filtered water. Next, you will need to fill the bucket with 2 inches of soil (the more clay in the soil, the better). It’s important to dig down past soil that could have come in contact with fallout, so dig down at least 4 inches, and preferably 6 inches, beneath the soil surface. Place a layer of clean towel with good absorbency properties that has been cut a little larger than the circumference of the bucket and place it on top of the soil. You can now use your handmade fallout water purifier by allowing water to flow through the purifier to the other bucket.

It is important to keep track of the amount of water that runs through a homemade fallout water filter because the soil and towel must be changed out after 50 quarts of water has been processed through it.

Water Containment Systems

Large quantities of water can be stored through the use of a water containment system that captures rainwater from the roof. One inch of rainwater on a 20 foot by 20 foot roof can generate 1,200 gallons of water. The water is collected through gutters and downspouts that are routed into containment barrels.

It is possible to make your own inexpensively (instructions below), but you must be certain the barrels used are food grade quality and when purchasing used barrels, you need to verify they did not contain chemicals or other hazardous materials.

DIY Water Containment System

Install a faucet near the base of a 55-gallon food grade plastic barrel, leaving enough room to draw water into a container. Once you’ve determined the placement where you will be installing the faucet, drill a one-inch hole. Now spread silicone around the threads of the faucet. Insert the faucet into the hole and secure it with a ¾ inch female adapter made of PVC.

At the top (not the lid) of the barrel, there needs to be an overflow hole. This is made by cutting a 2-inch hole with a hole saw. Now, cover it with window screen that’s been cut a bit larger than the 2-inch hole size and secure it by using silicone sealant. The screen is meant to keep insects from entering your water barrel and contaminating the water.

Using a jigsaw cut a larger, 6-inch hole on the top of the barrel and cover it with window screen to keep debris and insects out. This hole is where the water that has been routed from the roof will enter the containment barrel.

Place the barrel directly under the downspout to collect rainwater. The water can then be diverted to a garden area, or saved for drinking and bathing. The downside of a water containment system is the size of the barrels, making them easy to spot for the casual observer, tipping your hand to your preparedness should you live in a populated area. Their upside is they will extend your drinking water without having to haul it from an open water source. Check your area’s annual rainfall to make sure the expenditure of a water containment system is worthwhile before purchasing.

Warning: Water containment barrels cannot be used in below-freezing conditions, as the barrels will expand upon freezing and split. At the time of this writing Washington, Utah, and Colorado state officials have decided that rainwater collection is illegal. Apparently these States have gone on record by claiming the rain “belongs to someone else.” Who that someone was is anyone’s guess! Expect to see playhouses and sheds go up whose roofs connect to downspouts.

Water Wells

If you are fortunate enough to have a well, you should plan for a manual hand pump. That way, in a grid-down situation when your electric pump is rendered useless, you won’t be looking longingly at your well house, water just beneath your feet, with no earthly way to retrieve it. In northern climates, look for a frost-free model. They are available online and at hardware and home improvement stores. Quality manual pumps don’t come cheap, however. After researching which style worked best for my area in North Idaho, where winters often bring sub-zero temperatures, it lead me to a frost-free model that cost $1,500.

Just after emptying my bank account for that frost-free manual hand pump, I stumbled upon a water containment cylinder online at Lehman’s for a mere $49. It holds just under two gallons of water and has to be lowered into the well with a rope, but hey! At least a person can collect water without having to break the piggybank.

Do-It-Yourself Water Well

If you’re interested in digging your own well, go to Fred Dungan’s site “An Inexpensive, Do-It-Yourself Water Well” that gives very thorough step-by-step instructions on a DIY well for under $500: