Water Storage and Treatment during an Emergency
Water Storage and Treatment during an Emergency
Water is Life, especially in an Emergency. Every family needs to prepare to have enough water to sustain their needs until such time as reliable, potable water can be restored. That could be days, but more likely weeks depending on the cause of the emergency. The potential causes of no or limited water are many. Just a few are EMP(electrical magnet Pulse), CME (Coronal Mass Ejections) or any other cause that would knock out the electrical grid. The most probable cause would be a major Earthquake. Our water is pumped by electricity, chlorinated, and delivered in pipes that are old and very weak in most areas of our city. A major Earthquake would leave our water delivery system unusable. The wells from which we pump much of the water would most likely be contaminated by millions of gallons of petrochemicals produced in the South end of the city. Many nearby wells are already contaminated, thus unusable. We do get water from Bountiful City, and South Davis Water as well, but those pipes would most likely also be destroyed or severely damaged. Earthquakes also can completely alter the fissures and underground pathways we use to get our water up through the ground from the aquifers below. An Earthquake changes everything.
We live on the ancient seabed of Lake Bonneville, very close to the wet marshes, and playa of the Great Salt Lake. Liquefaction during an Earthquake would turn our soil into quicksand. Our homes and businesses could settle into the sediment, and much structural damage is sure to occur. As the ground slipped and pushed against the nearby faults, we could find water from the nearby Great Salt Lake up to our necks as the ground elevations changed. As bad as these scenarios sound, one also needs to assume that it could happen in the middle of the night, in the middle of the Winter. As much as we all love living in West Bountiful, we are facing potential problems that could be truly catastrophic. Our neighbors all along the Wasatch Front would be facing similar fates. Preparation now, is essential to protecting our Families and alleviating suffering later.
We live on the ancient seabed of Lake Bonneville, very close to the wet marshes, and playa of the Great Salt Lake. Liquefaction during an Earthquake would turn our soil into quicksand. Our homes and businesses could settle into the sediment, and much structural damage is sure to occur. As the ground slipped and pushed against the nearby faults, we could find water from the nearby Great Salt Lake up to our necks as the ground elevations changed. As bad as these scenarios sound, one also needs to assume that it could happen in the middle of the night, in the middle of the Winter. As much as we all love living in West Bountiful, we are facing potential problems that could be truly catastrophic. Our neighbors all along the Wasatch Front would be facing similar fates. Preparation now, is essential to protecting our Families and alleviating suffering later.
How much water should I store?
Every family should store enough water for their needs for at least 3 days. That would be at least 1 gallon for each member of the family per day. That should take care of drinking and sanitation. But what if some of it gets damaged or lost during the emergency? Storing more water than you think you need is provident living. What if the emergency goes a lot long than you think? Or maybe your neighbors need some? Don’t forget pets and other animals you may have. Storing enough for 2 Weeks would be advisable. We will address long term outages later.
How to store water
We are very blest to have many options in storing our water. Here are some ways people store their water. Each has advantages and disadvantages. You choose:
1. 2 Liter Pop Bottles
2. 5 to 7 gallon poly water jugs
3. 30-55 gallon poly water barrels
4. 100-300 gallon poly water casks
a. Some of the things you need to remember when storing water is you need to add some form of chlorine to your water to sanitize it, and keep it fresh. Liquid bleach is commonly used. Liquid bleach is about 5 percent chlorine, and you should use about 10 drops per gallon. Here is a table you can use to gauge. Use fresh bought liquid bleach, because it loses its potency by half every 6 months.
Chlorine Bleach Solution to add for clean water, or to keep water safe
Amount of water to be treated | Amount of bleach solution add | |
Using 1% solution | Using 5% solution | |
1 quart or 1 liter | 10 drops OR 1/8 tsp | 3 drops |
1/2 gallon or 2 quarts or 2 liters | 20 drops OR 1/4 tsp | 5 drops |
1 gallon | 40 drops OR 2.5 mL OR 1/2 tsp | 10 drops OR 1/8 tsp |
5 gallons | 12.5 mL OR 2.5 tsp | 50 drops OR 2.5 mL OR 1/2 tsp |
10 gallons | 25 mL OR 5 tsp | 5 mL OR 1 tsp |
Important: allow treated water to stand at least 30 minutes before using.
tsp=teaspoon; Tbsp=Tablespoon; mL=milliliter
tsp=teaspoon; Tbsp=Tablespoon; mL=milliliter
b. You should drain and replenish your water every 6 months.
c. If your water has green or black mold or algae you aren’t putting in enough chlorine. You will now need to sanitize your vessel before replenishing the water.
d. Place your vessels where they won’t freeze
e. Place your vessels where they are convenient to change out the water, or use in an emergency. What if your water is located in your basement, which now is under tons of lumber that use to be your house, how are you going to get to it? Just have a plan…….
f. Your water heater is a great backup water storage option, but if you are planning on using it, you better check to see it has seismic strapping securing it in case of an Earthquake, it stays upright. Also, you should go turn your water off at the street if you think there might be a chance of contamination from a broken pipe down the road. If you don’t, it will contaminate all the water in your house. If you even suspect its contaminated, boil it before use. You might want to check your gas line at the same time. Do you have a wrench attached to it in case of an emergency? It’s the best 4 dollar fire insurance policy around. Please don’t think of your water heater as your main option here.
g. If you are in a situation where you only have pressure occasionally, or every other day, fill your bathtubs, or 5 gallon buckets/lids. It could save you. Don’t laugh, this is the norm in many countries.
h. You should get a hand pump and hoses if you are storing a lot of water. You may need it to transfer water around. They are pretty inexpensive. An alternative is to make one from pvc pipe. Heres one link:
Water Treatment
If the emergency goes on for more than a few days, and your water storage runs out, your family is in extreme danger. You need safe potable water to insure your families safety. If the emergency has cut off all domestic water, and you are forced to use water you can glean from rainwater, surface water, ponds, ditches ,rivers, or wherever, you must treat it to insure that you are not ingesting biohazards, that can, and will kill you and your family. You are now in the same situation as the Pioneers coming across the plains. They were often sick and many died as a direct result of drinking contaminated water. Many Plains Indian tribes boiled their water for making teas, which alleviated a lot sickness. Pioneers along the Oregon Trail drank coffee and even gave it to their children, again boiling of the water unknowingly helped them. Even today we hear of temporary Health orders calling for the boiling of water because of water contamination. We will now discuss other ways of treating water to render it safe to drink. First of all, if you are going to be treating water, you should plan on obtaining and making 5 or 6 , clean, new, 5 gallon poly buckets with tight fitting lids part of your storage plan. They are really convenient to gather, store, and treat water. Anyone treating water needs to be extremely careful to not cross contaminate the water by having contact between your contaminated buckets and your “Clean” buckets. Also you can make your own 5 gallon water purifier with 2 Five gallon buckets, a spigot, and a couple of commercial filters. Here is one link, I know there are many others.
Pretreating muddy or cloudy water by filtering it through a number of t-shirts will help clear up the water before treating it.
Boiling Water
Boiling can be used as a method of water disinfection but is only advocated as an emergency water treatment method, or as a method of portable water purification in rural or wilderness settings without access to a potable water infrastructure. Bringing water to the boil is effective in killing or inactivating most bacteria, viruses and pathogens. Boiling is the most certain way of killing all microorganisms. Water temperatures above 160° F (70° C) kill all pathogens within 30 minutes and above 185° F (85° C) within a few minutes. So in the time it takes for the water to reach the boiling point (212° F or 100° C) from 160° F (70° C), all pathogens will be killed, even at high altitude. To be extra safe, let the water boil rapidly for one minute, especially at higher altitudes since water boils at a lower temperature.
Reverse Osmosis Filters
Reverse osmosis filters are very popular today. They are very effective, and the cost is relatively low. They use water under pressure to pass through one or more filters to trap contaminates out of the water. They can filter out chorine, odor, and taste contaminates, but don’t filter out all the bacteria or viruses. Some higher end filters do include a ultra-violet light chamber to kill bacteria and viruses, so if you are buying one, make sure this is part of your system. They have under sink models as well as whole house models. The disadvantages that I see with them as an emergency water system are:
a. Pressure is needed to force the water through the filter. You may not have water pressure, or electricity in an emergency.
b. They don’t filter out bacteria or viruses, and the utra-vlolet chamber that does kill them, needs electricity.
The Military have portable units that can process up to 600,000 gallons per day, but if you rely on them or others to provide for you, you will probably go thirsty. “If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear.”
Hand Pump Filters
These are the water filters that backpackers use to treat water. They are very convenient and can filter out most biological threats. They do not however filter out all threats. If you read the manufacturers literature, they promise a lot more than they can really deliver. They consist of a pump body which has a filter inside, an inlet hose for the contaminated water, an outlet hose thru which the filtered water comes out. A handle is used to suck the water into the pump body, thru the filter and out the outlet hose. They filter about 99.5 % of all pathogens out of the water which sounds pretty good, unless you drink the .5 % that contains a pathogen, you get sick and possibly die. They are small and come with a nylon carry bag. Most people throw the whole apparatus into the bag when done, the clean hoses in with the now contaminated hose that went into the stream. The clean hose is now contaminated and the next time you filter water, it will be contaminated. They cost between 60.00 to 300.00 Dollars. If you are going to use this method, you should also treat the water with some form of chlorine or a secondary method to insure purity. Are you sensing a pattern here? I like chlorine when treating water.
Steri-Pens or Ultra Violet Light
These small, light waterproof pens contain an Ultra Violet light that you turn on, place in 1 liter water bottles for 30 seconds to 1 minute. The Ultra Violet light kills any biological pathogens in the water. They work pretty good, if the water isn’t very cloudy( low turbidity). If the water is cloudy(high turbidity), which means the water has a lot of particles floating around in it, bacteria and viruses attach themselves to the particles, and there is a good chance that some of the pathogens may not get a full dose of the Ultra Violet light. They may be in the shade of other particulates. These Steri-Pens cost between 80.00 to 150.00. Again, if you use these, you should use a secondary form of treatment to insure purity. These are used for very small applications. One liter at a time, OK for backpacking, but not for large scale emergency use.
Halazone Tablets
Halazone Tablets have a prominent status among water purification tablets for ensuring hygienic quality of water with its effective bactericidal activity in water. Halazone Tablets are a powerful purifer of drinking water in small quantities.
Application:
It is used worldwide in army, navies, military, households, schools, hospitals for purification of drinking water. Halazone tablets provide instant purification; hence it is very useful in case of epidemics, floods and Tornados.
Halazone Tablets are available in the following strengths:
- 4 mg To treat 1 liter water.
- 20 mg To treat 5 liter water
- 40 mg To treat 10 liters water.
- 80 mg To treat 20 liters water.
- 100 mg To treat 25 liters water.
- 200 mg To treat 50 liters water.
- 400 mg To treat 100 liters water.
Halazone tablets leave the water with an especially bad taste. Drink powders are often added to improve the taste.
Chlorine Tablets or Granules
Chlorination of water is one of the worldwide-accepted methods of disinfection and purification of water to make it potable. It is inexpensive, economical and quickly purifies drinking water. Chlorine Tablets and granules are highly effective. This is the easiest method of disinfection and purification of water. It does not however remove the pathogens from the water, it only kills them. Chlorine in the form of Bleach has been discussed and used in the storage of water, but bleach looses one half of its Chlorine every 6 months, so it isn’t a good choice to store for long term treatment of water. Chlorine tablets and granuals contain 70% Chlorine in dry form. They store well, and will last for at least 10 years. You can buy 5 pounds of it for about $25.00 and it will treat 72,000 gallons. Care must be taken when storing and using Dry Chlorine. It must remain in the special container it is purchased in, as it can be hazardous if placed in any other type container. If using these tablets or granuals, you place a tablet or a number of graduals in the water, wait 30 minutes, then smell the water. If you can’t smell chlorine, add more and wait another 30 minutes. Continue until you can smell chlorine after 30 minutes. During an emergency, when the water is contaminated, it will continue to be the number one killer of those initial survivors. Dry Chlorine is the single most effective way to purify water. I can’t emphasis this enough. We can preserve thousands of lives by having this as part of our Storage Plan.
- Chlorine is easy to apply.
- Chlorine is a relatively inexpensive disinfecting agent.
- Chlorine is effective at low concentrations.
- Chlorine is safe when used properly.
We need to think about what is going on around us as well during an emergency. West Bountiful is on one of the 4 escape routes going out of the Valley. During the Katrina Hurricane, as people were trying to get out of the area, many were stranded on freeways locked up in gridlock. Most were not prepared and had little or no water. They left their cars and spread out into the surrounding areas looking for gas, water, and food. They decimated the towns and small cities along the way, and stripped clean local resources. I assure you that plans are now in place in those areas to make sure that does not happen again. We probably need to make contingency plans to help those people who come our way. There will no doubt be many, and we need to be prepared for them as well. People will be desperate, and be willing to take what they need or find. I hope we can be a help to many within our community, and those who we find along the way. To do so, we need to prepare for our Families, and then for our Brothers and Sisters who can not, or will not prepare.
For more information visit: http://fema.gov/plan/prepare/water.shtm
