Long term water storage

My water storage is expired, so I have water purifiers.
Also, each bottle has 1 drop of bleach, and is stored in a totally dark enviroment. Sunlight will get to water if you let it... I know Darwin was an idiot, but if you leave a bottle in the sun, things grow in it.

Stringfellow_Hawke said:

Forgive me if there has been a thread on this already, but anyone have any good info on this?

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I run a website that provides information about prepping, and posted an article about water sources and purification just a few days ago. You can see it here: Homemade Water Purification | Prepper Pro Gear

Hope it helps! It kind of basic, but most of my readers aren't hard core survivalists, more like people interested in prepping and just want general knowledge (the wave tops). If there is anything that I can help you with in particular though, ask away!

Here are a couple of articles by the CDC that speaks to purifying water:

• https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/pdf/emergency/09_202278-B_Make_Water_Safe_Flyer_508.pdf
• Emergency Water Supply Preparation
• Cisterns and Other Rain Catchment Systems

You people should learn to dig an oldfashion well and put stones inside it to prevent mud from getting into the water, then fix a pipe into it and a handpump then Build a sturdy lid around the handpump. Remember to completedly empty the well in summer and put down a ladder and tie a rope around one of you that two other can pull up in case the ladder sinks in the mud. Then take a bucket in another rope and the person in the empty well fills the bucket with mud and lets the other two on the top pour away the mud far away so it foes not run back to the well so fast. In summer one can empty the well with a waterhose fixed to the handpump. Then one can water flowers and the vegetables but one should do it when it is a dry weather. When it is needed. So it does not start to mold the growing things. When the well is cleaned away from most mud, usual here is kneehigh-thighhigh of mud per year, the person that is in the well should come up and then take the ladder away. Please wear helmets, and shoes, stones could fall from the insides when one climbs in. In the bottom there could be sharp stones too. A well gives a lot of fresh water and many times it is so clean You can drink it. You can also take it to a lab if uou wish or filter it. I have been drinking water from a well every summer for 40 summers. But one must clean the well or else the water gets bad or too muddy. It is only deep on the bottom where there is mud and the rest is clean in a well that is cleanced each year.

Sounds good for certain areas, however where I am the average well depth is 385 feet.

I managed to get a good supply of dehydrated water tablets here in the UK. They have an indefinite shelf life and apparently last forever.

Francis Drake said:

I managed to get a good supply of dehydrated water tablets here in the UK. They have an indefinite shelf life and apparently last forever.

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Interesting. Are they disinfectants, diuretics, or do they somehow expand into water?

Roseonathorn said:

Would an oldfashion handpumping well in the backyard do it? where water springs up from under ground.

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My oldest son lives out in the boonies down two dirt roads up on a hill...
He has a well with a pump, but also has a hand pump he can hook up in the event the power goes out.
Good thing to have.

jacks said:

Interesting. Are they disinfectants, diuretics, or do they somehow expand into water?

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Like most tablets, just add water.

Didaskalos said:

My oldest son lives out in the boonies down two dirt roads up on a hill...
He has a well with a pump, but also has a hand pump he can hook up in the event the power goes out.
Good thing to have.

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Does he need to keep water aside to prime it?

Francis Drake said:

Like most tablets, just add water.

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lol I am missing something here.

How to Purify Water
Removing Large Particulates

1. Strain the water.
2. Make your own filter.
3. Use sedimentation.

Treating Water with Chemicals

1. Use water purification and disinfection tablets.
2. Clean water with small amounts of bleach.
3. Purify with iodine.

Filtering out Contaminants

1. Use a commercial water filter.
2. Filter out pathogens with pine trees.
3. Remove heavy metals with cilantro.
4. Drain the water through a clay pot to remove bacteria.

Killing Pathogens with Heat or Sunshine

1. Boil the water.
2. Distill the water with a solar still.
3. Use the SODIS method.

I am allergic to both iodine and bleach.
I'm sure when it says to filter out pathogens with pine trees it means pine NEEDLES ?
Using a solar still (which is easily make-shift) is an idea I hadn't thought of regarding purification.

I am recalling how the cheap drunks would filter their rubbing alcohol or whatever through a stack of bread slices.....

Stringfellow_Hawke said:

Forgive me if there has been a thread on this already, but anyone have any good info on this?

Click to expand...

When I was in the Peace Corps I drew water from an open well, let it settle in a plastic pail for a day, then ran it through a ceramic filter, then boiled it 20 minutes. Once cooled I poured it into plastic bottles and cooled it in a large semiporous clay pot that used evaporative cooling. When traveling I used iodine tablets, twice as much if I could see anything swimming in the bottle. The taste was terrible. It worked for two years.

A well, a ceramic filter, heat for boiling, those were my essentials for safe water. Maybe caramic AND boiling was overkill but it worked for me.