Purifying Water

You have just been told you cannot drink tap water. What do you do?

1. Boil for 1 min. Water is safe to drink, no matter the altitude or…

2. Chlorine

Take chlorine used for laundry (i.e. Clorox) -must be unscented/no dyes. After treating with bleach, leave the water bottle open for 30 minutes to let the bleach evaporate. Treated water should have a slight taste and smell of bleach.

Size........................Clear Water...........Cloudy and/or 40 degree

1 quart .....................2 drops.................... 4 drops

2 liter bottle.............. 4 drops.................... 8 drops (1/8 teaspoon)

3 liter bottle.............. 6 drops.................... 12 drops

1 gal (4 ltr/4qrt)....... 8 drops (1/8 teaspoon)… 16 drops (1/4teaspoon)

5 gallon..................... ½ teaspoon............... 1 teaspoon

15 gallon.................. 1 ½ teaspoons......... 3 teaspoons

55 gallon.................. 2 Tablespoons........ 4 Tablespoons

Stored water does not go bad. There is NO expiration date. It may go flat but is still safe and drinkable. To restore taste, pour back and forth between two containers to add air. Chlorination is commonly used as a disinfectant for drinking water at a concentration of 3 parts per million (ppm) from your water department.http://www.vmtrc.ucdavis.edu/s_sanitat.html

Boiling will kill 100% of all the above! Boil for 10 minutes.

Chlorine alone does not provide adequate protection against protozoa cysts, it is recommended that water be first passed through a filter to remove parasites and then treated with chlorine for 30 min. The water should have a slight smell of chlorine. This is good, you want that. If there is no smell, chlorinate again and allow another 30 mins. If there is no smell of chlorine, find another source of drinking water.

Filters remove bacteria and protozoa cysts, not viruses. That’s why combined with chlorine (kills viruses) they provide the protection from all three contaminants.

Filtering and chlorination will not make water contaminated with chemicals (pesticides, oil, and gas) safe to drink, look for another source. Store water in soda bottles, juice bottles or large clean, unused barrels (usually blue). Do not store in milk jugs, they will leak in a few months.