TOTM June 2016- Water

Discussion in 'Back to Basics' started by Motomom34, May 31, 2016.


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  1. Motomom34

    Motomom34 Monkey+++

    Water will be the Topic of the month. Water is the key to survival before, during and after SHTF. Some have said that next war will be over water. When we talk of water here on the monkey, we seem to imagine it in a bug out, desperate type scenario. Lately, I have been seeing headlines of contaminated drinking water supplies, think Flint Michigan.

    the Environmental Protection Agency reveals that only nine U.S. states are reporting safe levels of lead in their water supply. These include Alabama, Arkansas, Hawaii, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota and Tennessee.

    America's water worries are bigger than Flint

    The government has pledged 80 billion to start fixing the infrastructure conveying water (let’s hope it is not another shovel ready joke). Some think that water is a human right. I do not know about that but I do know it is a necessity. This TOTM is not about politics, it is about a most important resource.

    Water is a huge topic. It covers so many areas. I want people to pose their questions, their concerns. Here are some issues/questions that come to my mind at the moment:

    Non-potable water is water that is not of drinking water quality. Uses of & changing it to potable.

    -Bathing in contaminated water
    -What happens when you do not have drinkable tap water- try it for a week.
    -How do I successfully install a hand pump to my well head- arg!!!
    -Making devices to obtain water from well
    -Illnesses from bad water.
    -Purification-chemical, filters, boiling, MIOX & testing.
    -Storage-treatment & testing.
    -Planning-first, second and third options for water.
    -Wise use of a valuable resource-rain barrels, sump pump basin for flushing waste water, bath water for flushing waste water, shower water for waste water.

    How sure are you of your water?
     
  2. GOG

    GOG Free American Monkey

    We bought this place because it has three sources of water: a real mountain spring, a year round creek and a well. There's also an 1,100 gal holding tank.

    Emergency filtration at the house is handled with two Monolith five gallon filters, In the truck and assorted packs and pouches are the drinking straw type filters and an assortment of purification tablets.

    I also store some water. Stored water can taste kind of flat. Aerating it will freshen the taste.

    I plan on setting up rain collection in time for next Winter.

    As far as how sure am I about my water, I think it's pretty darn good as far as quality and I believe I have the basics down for purification although like everything else there's room for improvement.

    Oh, and here's a link to a hand pump that's pretty reasonable. I'm considering one for this place. Hand Water Pump. Solar Pump. by SIMPLE PUMP Co.
     
    Last edited: Jun 1, 2016
  3. UncleMorgan

    UncleMorgan I like peeling bananas and (occasionally) people.

    I have often thought that if people really understood the fundamental importance of water and the likelihood of their local source being compromised at some point, there would be no glass bottles in the landfills at all.

    Instead, every glass bottle would be refilled with purified water, re-capped or re-sealed, and stacked like cordwood until everyone had at least a year's supply on hand for every family member, plus the family dog. Or cat. Or whatever.

    I admit that would be hard to arrange in a small apartment, but who really needs a second bedroom when you have a perfectly good sofa? Or even a first bedroom, for that matter?

    Every house-on-a-lot should have at least a 20,000 gallon cistern, hand pumps and purification equipment on hand. Likewise, people should be free to "Just Say NO!" to fluorides, chlorine, lead, pesticides, drug residues, mercury, viruses, bacteria, plasmids, prions, and the used condoms that wind up in the local "water purification plant" on their way (in whole or in part) to a water faucet near you.

    Jeez--in my town they once found a four-inch pipe that had been connected wrong and was dumping raw sewerage into the "purified" line. And had been doing so for at least five years.

    (Ummmm! Delicious! That'll quench yer thirst on a hot day!)

    Given the present legal fiction that the Government owns all the water that falls on your land, and collecting rainwater can now be a "criminal offense", I can well see that the next war may be over water.

    And it may be a very local war--one you won't need a television to watch.
     
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  4. Tully Mars

    Tully Mars Metal weldin' monkey

    @GOG Thanks for the above link! Looks pretty impressive. A bit pricey, but quality always is. I'm going to give these folks a call. We have one well that is kinda remote and this may be a better overall choice than what we currently have.
     
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  5. Salted Weapon

    Salted Weapon Monkey+++

    If you are over 40 water becomes more of a emergency kidneys alone work harder to filter the crap out as you get older.
    They process about 80oz daily, depending on the person each day dehydration in those over 40 is faster and more noticeable because the bodies inability to work and hydrate as fast as it used to. The water access and consumption as well as quality can really affect ones body and again if you are over 40 the affects can be in hours as opposed todays depending on environment. I keep one month supply here. The ranch has 5000 gallons and a running creek as well as a 10,000 gallon pond that used for horses most the time.
    The water line here is only about 4-5 feet as there is an old large creek bed just 200feet away even in summer you can dig down 3-4feet and hit moisture. Its not tapped for a well but sure it could be.
    Back to health, not only are your bowels going to pay you back for drinking unfiltered water that alone can add to worsting hydration issue.
    In a SHTF situation water will become and issue, depending on where you live cities will become vacated due to no water and places along rivers would become populated thats good and bad in a SHTF. My opinion the more away from the known natural resources the better chance of fresher water and less people using that same resource which can lead to other issues of defense etc.
     
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  6. Tully Mars

    Tully Mars Metal weldin' monkey

    Picture 187.

    The pic above is one I did for us last summer.
    First, is the well being used or is it just capped like this one was?
    This one is 8 5/8" well casing going down a bit over 300'.
    We got the pump @ Harbor Freight for about 40 bux. It will only lift 30' I think it said, so you need to know about what your water level is at. Summer is best to check this as the water level usually rises during the fall/winter months.

    What I did here:
    Cut off the well cap and trimmed the casing so it was true with a cutting torch. I then cut a piece 3" wide from the casing and cleaned up and removed all burrs with a grinder and sanding disc on both the casing and the 3" ring. Cut a new well cap @ 9" diameter 1/4" thickness. Laid out and cut a hole just large enough for a steel 1 1/4" pipe coupling to fit through in the center of the cap. Centered the coupling in the hole and welded both sides.
    The 3" ring I had cut earlier was then split and a 2" piece cut out.(you can see it in the pic)
    Laid out and cut 3 holes equally spaced just large enough for a 1/2-13 nut. Welded the nuts in place and chased the threads with a tap.
    Fit and tack welded the ring to the cap, then welded out, cleaned, primed and painted.
    Glued together 120' of 1 1/4" PVC pipe,with the last joint having male threads to screw into the coupling.
    Lowered the entire assembly into the well and tightened the 3 1/2 13 bolts to hold the cap in place.
    Threaded a 1 1/4" nipple into the coupling and then threaded the pump on to that. If you look close you can see the nipple under the pump. All threaded connections were wrapped with thread tape and doped.
    Primed the pump and after a bit of pumping, we have water.

    Hope this is what you were looking for.:)
     
  7. chimo

    chimo the few, the proud, the jarhead monkey crowd

    Besides my well, I have a 10,000 gallon cistern that stores rain water captured from my home's gutter downspouts and storm drainage...along with its own pump and pressure tank that is also piped into my home plumbing....I use it to power the outdoor faucets for watering and such, but in a pinch I could open one valve and use it throughout the house too. Now I am working on a solar/battery/inverter system and/or manual pump so I can keep it working without utility power or using my generator.

    But because I am of the same mind as @UncleMorgan I also have:
    • 2 60 gallon rain water tanks attached to gutter downspouts on my barn (which don't go to the main cistern)
    • 2 55 gallon drums of water stored in the basement, treated and refreshed every two years.
    • cases of bottled water in containers varying from 16oz to 1 gallon
    • a Big Berkey and spare filters
    • many various portable water filters including First Need XLEs, Sawyers and Renovos
    • lots water purification tablets and Chlorine Dioxide drops
    • lots of bleach
    • lots of ways to boil water or make fire to do so
    • the ability to make homemade water filters using pails, sand, charcoal, etc.
    • the ability to make solar stills
    • nearby pond, lakes and creeks, 5 gallon containers and a strong back
    • a fairly rainy climate
    Water be berry, berry important, to, me.
     
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  8. UncleMorgan

    UncleMorgan I like peeling bananas and (occasionally) people.

    Rock on, chimo!
     
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  9. Oltymer

    Oltymer Monkey++

    One of my requirements for the property I was looking for, besides being inexpensive, was that it had to have a good spring on it. Luckily I ended up with 2 springs on my place, and have a Big Berkey, though I had to repair the black charcoal filters when they fell off their supporting heads a couple of years ago. Now I've scrounged a 55 gal. plastic drum which I will modify to accept a garden hose, place it in the back of my old PU truck and pump it full at a spring with a 12 volt submersible pump hooked to the trucks battery, then drive it around to my scattered garden plots and be able to water them much easier than hauling buckets of water all over the place. I also have my plumbing coming into the trailer modified so I can cut off the city water and gravity feed water from the hill in back. so just park my truck on the hill and attach a garden hose to my plumbing input and to the drum in the truck. I've drunk from the spring with no problems but my significant other is a bit squeamish about drinking it unless it's run through the Berkey. I have brewed some great beer using the spring water.
     
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  10. Ganado

    Ganado Monkey+++

    @Oltymer I am assuming because you got cheap and springe, you sacrifice something like location in order to get it? ANYTHING with water, spring, well etc won't be cheap.
     
  11. Oltymer

    Oltymer Monkey++

    Actually, it was cheap, even for around here, my realtor told me I would never find the place I was looking for for the amount I had to spend, as I bought it outright and only have to pay taxes every year, which are under $200. It took 2 years of diligent searching though. I didn't get 5 acres, but ended up with 3, which is a handful to keep up, required a spring and got 2, required that it be next to a National Forest, ended up adjacent to a State Park which is a part of the Great Trail system being built that will run from the Everglades to Upper NY. Beautiful mountainous country with nice neighbors who are all pretty self sufficient in many ways, and clean fresh water coming out of the ground - I still have a hard time believing it myself!
     
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  12. Ganado

    Ganado Monkey+++

    a very nice find! gratz!
     
  13. arleigh

    arleigh Goophy monkey

    Here is How I look at it.
    I have water stored a number of places and in many different things .
    I am not worried about age or contaminants from storage because evert thing will be run through the bucket filter any way SOP.
    Then it can be aerated for taste, and for good measure re chlorinated .
    It has got to be better than some of the city water I have consumed in the past..
    2 of my 335 gallon cistern systems are being fed city water on a float valve, and dispensed to my chickens drip in to watering troughs in their cages and a fountain in their yard.
    I have a 1961 gallon watering trough for horses it's full and sealed up.
    Several water tanks well tank and 3 water heater tanks are series piped and fresh water flows through them each time I do laundry . There is a check valve on the inlet to prevent loss back into the grid. This system I can pressurize if the grid is down, and put out fires if I have to.
    Any product I buy that is capable of holding water, I save and fill and store.
     
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  14. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    I'm on my own well, so I'm as sure it's good as can be with periodic testing. As far as the certainty of that goes, the testing outfits are as reliable as any. Where I would get into trouble would be if power went out in a real SHTF situation. The bore is over 500 feet, and my scrawny carcass is ill adapted to a manual pump that deep. The backup plan is drums in the back of the pickup and a ride to the local creek, then filter it. If I run out of fuel, well, it looks like a walk to the creek bank, about 700 vertical feet and 1-1/2 miles. If winter, plenty of wood and snow to burn and melt.
     
  15. Yard Dart

    Yard Dart Vigilant Monkey Moderator

    What about putting solar on that well.... would come in handy if mainline power fails.
     
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  16. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    Solar would have problems, not insurmountable. Trees on the sunny side that would have to come down. Affect is both winter and summer.
     
  17. Tully Mars

    Tully Mars Metal weldin' monkey

    Any chance of a windmill type set up?
     
  18. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    Possible, but costly, even relative to solar. Again, trees averaging around 40 feet and up. The prevailing wind is from the uphill side. It would take a tower, and probably need drill and shoot for a proper foundation. (Hm, might be able to rig an antenna off the same tower ---)
     
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  19. Tully Mars

    Tully Mars Metal weldin' monkey

    There ya go! ;)
     
  20. chimo

    chimo the few, the proud, the jarhead monkey crowd

    I'm surprised more people don't catch and store rainwater (where it's legal), it's much better than tap water for watering plants and gardens!
     
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