Storing Water May be Your Most Important Prep

storing water

Periodically, I try to stress the need for storing water.  Over the last few years, we have seen several incidents that show how easy our infrastructure can fail.  Last Jan the water was cut off to hundreds of thousands of residences of West Virginia due to a chemical spill.  This last weekend there was an order in Toledo Ohio not to drink the water, brush your teeth, wash your dishes, or for the elderly or infirmed to wash with it.

Early this morning I received this question from Pam a reader in Toledo.

“I live in TOLEDO, OHIO. Three days now without water and no end in sight. The City people are not telling us how long it will take to clean up this mess if and when the lake gets back to normal. We, my neighbors and friends are trying to figure out where to get water. Our State is allowing only one gallon per family.

I have a pool. I use chlorine and algaecide weekly as needed. Some people say the plastic liner leaks BPA (not sure that’s what it’s called) into the water. We still have power so my big sand filter runs all day and night. (I don’t know if this would be effective, Howard)

I live with my mother who has Alzheimer’s. so, we don’t need much. I want to help the neighbors out. Can someone please tell me what to do to make the pool water useable and hopefully drinkable. I’m mostly worried about the algaecide I’ve used. Can that be boiled out? What should I buy. Our Mayor just said this is going to be our “New Normal”. We all need some advice.
Thank you so much”.

See also  DIY Fittings for Emptying IBC Totes & Other Large Water Storage Containers
storing water
I like Totes they be be stacked three high and each hold 275 gallons of water How to Store Water in a Compact Space

According to this morning’s news the incident in Toledo Ohio has now ended and they have declared the water safe to drink this morning.  The ban on drinking the water had been in effect since Saturday.  The water had been determined to contain microcystin,  a toxin from an algae bloom on Lake Erie. These toxins could cause serious medical problems.

This incident really points to why you need good water storage.  This toxin could not be treated by normal means.  Boiling merely concentrates the toxin.  There are serious question about how effective water filters are on the toxin.  I have checked on the Big Berkey’s and so far they have not made a statement as to whether or not their filter is effective.

Now as far as Pam’s question, I don’t have a better answer than what I posted in the article, Is Swimming Pool Water Safe to Drink?

Between the current drought in the west and incidents like these it reinforces my believe that we need to store water, as well as have the best water filtration and purification equipment that we can afford.

Here are some additional links to information on storing water.

The importance of storing water can’t be over emphasized.  Even if you live in an area with lots of surface water and have a good well, situations can occur that prevent you from using them.  Store all the water than you can.

Howard

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4 thoughts on “Storing Water May be Your Most Important Prep”

  1. I’m also a resident of NW OHIO I wasn’t too surprised by this algae bloom toxic event. We’ve had them before over the last dozen or so years. In fact, the news reported this bloom to occur weeks ago!

    There are several factors envolved. The Western basin of Lake Erie averages only 27 feet deep and the Port of Toledo has to be dredged on a regular basis to keep the depth of the port commutable for huge lakers tanking up on everything from fuel to grain to lime stone. From what I’ve heard from friends who work on the lakers Port Toledo is a frickin’ nightmare for them to navigate.

    Being so shallow and with an untoward windage the western side of our beautiful lake turns into a nasty green sludge. Again, this nothing new to us. Sure, blame the farmers for nitrate and phosphorus run off that exacerbates the bloom but there is something odd here. The state says that a micro gram of toxin per litre is dangerous. The a holes at the Federal EPA say that 1 billion parts of toxin per litre are considered dangerous to humans and pets. So which is it? The math doesn’t add up or somebody is lying. I’m not going to waste my time reading a peer reviewed report on the bio/toxic events in Lake Erie that will occur in 5 years. This type of event is common on all the Great Lakes ( and other bodies of water ) where sun, wind and warm shallow water suddenly bloom out of control.

    My advice for the city of Toledo is to run a intake line further into the Lake in deeper water where the chilly temps will alleviate the bloom and continue the sweet and tasty water from the tap that we’ve been blessed with.

    The people of NW Ohio had a lot of help from our neighboring communities and big box stores outside of our geographic area plus the OH Nat Guard, church related charities and concerned citizens looking out for one another. That was refreshing ( pls pardon the pun!)

    As for me, I already had over 130 gallons of fresh non polluted water for myself, the pets and my elderly neighbors.

    I’m glad the water crisis is over but it has been an eye opener.

    Best to all!

    Snake

  2. I am stocked with a little water in 30 gallon drums, acquired after traveling 175 miles one way to get them. I have 20 now–would have more but our little truck only holds 5 and gas is outrageous for a trip to get just 5 drums.
    I also have about 100 gallons in Simply Orange/Grapefruit plastic jugs and other food grade jugs for a total of 700 gallons.
    My concern is there are still folks storing bleach and have no clue that bleach has a short shelf life. Something like 3-6 months.
    Please alert your friends/family/neighbors to stock calcium hypochlorite, pool shock, for normal filtering(not like what happened in Ohio).
    It requires little space, it comes in a 1 lb. bag, it has a ‘forever’ shelf life.
    1 to 2, then 2 to 1.
    1 teaspoon of CH to a 2 liter of clean water makes a solution.
    Then, 2 teaspoons of solution to a 1 gallon jug of dirty water.
    1 to 2, then 2 to 1.

    Have a teaspoon, a 2 liter jug, a gallon jug in a canvas bag with the CH.
    Coffee filters help get out sludge and particles.
    Oh, stock up on Tang–get your vitamin C while drinking purified, filtered water. 🙂

  3. One thing about water is that if SHTF all the stupid people who should know to bury their waste will be too lazy to bury it and like Farrell Kingsley wrote in the best prepper book ever “Nine Meals To Anarchy”, it only took two weeks to pollute every water surface source in every city. It was the best book ever to get you thinking and I highly recommend it if you have not read it.

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