Water Storage for a Year

It may not be practical to store water for a year. At a minimum it would be 365 gallons of water per person per year, the equivalent of about eight 55 gallon drums. The more you store the better, but I have another method that will help you purify water if have a water supply, but not purified. This is not to replace water storage, but to provide another method for you to help provide clean drinking water. One pound of dry chlorine will provide enough drinking water for a family for a year.

You will need:

1. Medicine dropper that measures in milliliters and teaspoons. (This is needed when you need to purify water with liquid Clorox bleach. You can purify water with this method
2. 1 teaspoon
3. 1 qt container that measures in ounces and milliliters. (Mark with black marker the 16 oz./1pt)
4. 2 gallon container
5. 15 gallon container
6. Pool chemical testing strips (measures free chlorine, alkalinity and ph).
7. 1 pound of Dry Chlorine 70% calcium hypochlorite, 30% inert ingredients

Add and dissolve one heaping teaspoon of high-test granular calcium hypochlorite (approximately ¼ ounce) for each two gallons of water. The mixture will produce a stock chlorine solution. DO NOT DRINK THIS.

To disinfect water, add the stock chlorine solution in the ratio of one part of stock chlorine solution to each 100 parts of water to be treated. This is roughly equal to adding 1 pint (16 ounces) of stock chlorine to each 12.5 gallons of water (approximately ½ liter to 50 liters of water) to be disinfected. To remove any objectionable chlorine odor, aerate the disinfected water by pouring it back and forth from one clean container to another.

http://www.epa.gov/safewater/faq/emerg.html

Dry chlorine must contain only Calcium Hypochorite about 70% and the other part inert ingredients of about 30%. It must NOT contain anything else. Anything else is poison. I found a good source for this chemical through Kayak Kataloge Corp of Lancaster, NY (800-526-7337). Order item number CB235220 +/- 4.00 per pound. CalledSUPER Shock Chlorinator -1lb.

Once the final water has been mixed together, allow it to sit for 30 min. With the testing strips, take a sample and follow the directions to test the water.

If it smells of too much chlorine, here is another secret, if you grind up a vitamin C tablet and sprinkle it over the water. Allow another 30 minutes to pass and the excess chlorine will fall to the bottom of the water as harmless salt. The water is safe to drink. It is still recommended to run the water through a water filter.

It is a good idea to practice this before you need to know as well as exercise caution.

Water Filter

I went on a hike during the summer to Yellowstone National Park. We had 12 Scouts with us on a 16 mile hike to Union Falls and Scout Pool. The scenery is really everything you hear and see about Yellowstone. The trail was easy to hike, even for me! We came prepared with our lunches, snacks and plenty of water. We arrived, relaxed, and played in the warm water created by a nearby hot spring that emptied into the river. It was awesome. On the way back, the Scouts had begun to run out of water and after everyone had shared what little they had left, we had none. There were many little streams in the back country, we had been warned of the dangers of drinking unclean water. We finally arrived upon one stream and our guide pulled out a little water filter. That blessed water filter! It took us a long time to fill up, drink and refill multiple times our water bottles, but when we were no longer thirsty we headed back to camp. It was many hours before we returned. The thirst I experienced and the feeling of not knowing how to prepare myself or my troop was a real eye opening experience. That was several years ago. Now, I try to convince everyone I know, one of the most important things to have in your emergency preparedness kit is a water filter. You can have water, food and even money, but look at the experiences of those in New Orleans and other places where money meant nothing and they were surrounded by water. If they had only had a water filter, they could have cooked, cleaned, drank and shared, thereby empowering themselves and others.

Go buy a good water filter.