Why I keep water stored at home...

Discussion in 'General Survival and Preparedness' started by DKR, Jun 9, 2019.


  1. DKR

    DKR Raconteur of the first stripe

    [​IMG]
    Folks actually had to be told not to drink the water.... COAL GROVE, Ohio
    (Ohio town's water turns purple overnight)

    Then there is the Blue water
    ([PushBack] Bill Wattenburg’s Bio: Blue Water (Copper) Contamination in Homes) from 1991.

    Locally, it's mostly broken water mains.... Still, no fun to wake up and find no water or unusable water for your house.

    To that end we keep 30 gallons of 'good' water on hand and a way to bulk treat water from a local creek...
     
  2. UncleMorgan

    UncleMorgan I like peeling bananas and (occasionally) people.

    It's amazing how fast things get bad when you run out of water.
    We keep at least 10 gallons in the pantry for short-term power outages, and about 200 gals more on the property in nicely shaded places for hurricane season.

    And the occasional tornado.

    We get a lot of short power failures. In Florida it rains a lot, and that's when the drunks play their favorite game: Power Pole Roulette.

    Usually, the power pole wins, and the drunk spills his beer.

    I hate it when that happens.
     
  3. Ura-Ki

    Ura-Ki Grampa Monkey

    When I first got back home and bought our house, there was a ton of construction going on all over the place, and it was almost a daily thing to have brown water for a few min until the pipes cleared ( Not fun when you PAY for water) even worser when you turn on the tap and small pieces of gavel come out, or plug up stuff! I had the plumbing apart several times to clear the stuff out!
    I took pictures of it all and saves samples and called the city out to see what was going on! I got a check in the mail 6 months later for almost $1200 for repairs and services! Blew me away, the city actually owned up to it!
    We were storing rain water in a cistern until the state found it and told us to get rid of it or be fined, so I buried it it and called the inspector back out! Nope, not storing anything! As he is standing on top of a 250 gallon storage tank!
     
  4. HK_User

    HK_User A Productive Monkey is a Happy Monkey

    Brownwood, TX Severe Weather Alert | Weather Underground
     
    Last edited: Jun 9, 2019
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  5. Lancer

    Lancer TANSTAFL! Site Supporter+++

    How the @#$&! can the state prohibit you from rain water catchment? House I grew up in, upstate NY mountains collected all the rain that fell on 2,200 square feet of metal roofing, and stored it in a 10,000 gal cistern in the basement. Of course the place being an old inn ~ 200 years old meant it had to have water for guests and work animals -so three dug wells, along with the drilled one, and an ancient, 1900-ish?, still fully functional, diesel genny.
     
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  6. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    Each State writes and passes Water Rights Statutes, that regulated the Citizens Rights and uses of Water... To know those Statues, you need to do your own Due Diligence, and read &understand WHAT THOSE ARE in your State... If you do the research, you will understand why and who setup the Regulations in your State...
     
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  7. Ura-Ki

    Ura-Ki Grampa Monkey

    Oregon, specifically several counties, not only forbids water catchment, but bills you for your runoff! Its a fucked up deal all around if you ask me! Then there is the "Watershed" tax, if any of your run off goes into an open system strait into a waterway, you get taxed, which is every where! This is what happens when a State is run by Democrats for 60 years!
     
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  8. oil pan 4

    oil pan 4 Monkey+++

    They should have been using groundfos chemical pumps. Unless some one turned it on and just left it running by accident. But then it's not a pump malfunction.


    The water here goes out almost weekly due to crumbling, improperly installed pvc water mains.
    So have 30 or 40 gallons in opaque rectangular blue water containers. And 15 to 20 gallons of drinking water cooler water in those clinical clear/blue office water cooler jugs.
     
  9. Merkun

    Merkun furious dreamer

    There are any number of reliable chemical metering pumps. I preferred Milton Roy, LMI or Pulsafeeder, depending somewhat on service. Additionally, there's a good chance that the metering pumps were indeed incorrectly allowed to run when the water service was stopped to isolate the leak (or the control system failed.) Grundfos makes metering service pumps, but I've no experience with them. Great circulators, no doubt about it.

    By the way, that purple is either potassium or sodium permanganate used for sterilization of the mains. Stout oxidizing agent, will eat your esophagus right quickly. Do NOT drink it.
     
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  10. Yard Dart

    Yard Dart Vigilant Monkey Moderator

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  11. arleigh

    arleigh Goophy monkey

    I put a whole house filter on my line into the house for several reasons
    It removed debris and sand the ruin valves .
    and catches other unwanted organisms .
    There are britta filters in the house as well for drinking water .
    Along with that I have about 2000 gallons in various tanks and containers .
    A set of tanks that can be air pressurized and a valve opens to the house for when the city water is off.
    Not having a well and not trusting the grid, it pays off.
    Even if I had a well I would still have external reservoirs so that in the event of a quake ,if the well is compromised ,which I have seen happen, I still have what's in my tanks . Also I have seen wells that are over tapped by others talking the same underground stream . there is nothing that you can do about it but with a significant resrvoiur you can pump a little at a time and create a reserve better then depending on a demand system from the well only .
     
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  12. TnAndy

    TnAndy Senior Member Founding Member

    Man.....I'd hate to think I was paying for that to come out of the pipes ! Looks like somebody dumped a gallon of purple primer in it !

    [​IMG]
     
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  13. Oddcaliber

    Oddcaliber Monkey+++

    I keep about 50 gallons of water in the apartment for situations like this. Nice shade of purple though.
     
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  14. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    [QUOTE="arleigh, post: 587914, member: 14211”] in the event of a quake ,if the well is compromised ,which I have seen happen, I still have what's in my tanks . Also I have seen wells that are over tapped by others talking the same underground stream . there is nothing that you can do about it... .[/QUOTE]
    Oh, yes there is something you can do to fix a well that has lost much of it’s Head... Pull the pumps and foot valves, and piping, and lower a “ Shattering Charge to the bottom of the casing, Detonate it...this can shatter the Ground structure, and create a much larger reseviour to tap when you run a new Pipe, foot vale and pump down the casing.... 55 years ago, My Master Blaster and I made a good living doing just that kind of work, reviving Tired Wells, all over Washington State... Been out of that Biz for a long time, but the Geology, and Math hasn’t changed much on this Rock since...
     
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  15. aardbewoner

    aardbewoner judge a human on how he act,not on look and talk.

    and as i read some include rain water WOW and that is in the land of the free.
     
  16. Motomom34

    Motomom34 Monkey+++

    Thanks for posting this thread @DKR. I have city water. After reading this thread I checked my supply and notice a few empty 3 gallon jugs that had gone camping but hadn’t been refilled
     
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  17. arleigh

    arleigh Goophy monkey

    We had a 100 year old hand dug well about 5' in diameter 30' deep and the under ground stream that fed it had stopped after a major 6.2 earth quake .
     
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