I found plenty of information about storing water, an how to treat it with chlorine bleach. Only one place did I see anything about length of storage. I said something like "many months, properly stored." I've started storing fresh water, and was wondering if anyone could recommend how often to rotate it. Thanks in advance.

-- Mike (gartner@execpc.com), September 18, 1998

Answers

I'm ready to be corrected if there's good reason, but I would think we could wait till the last minute to stock up on water...maybe organize the containers now. The spring water in the supermarkets seeems to have expiry dates of about 2 years.

-- Jeff Brown (jefftix@yahoo.com), September 18, 1998.

Chlorine is extremely unstable, and can't be depended upon for long-term storage. Aerobic '07' stabilized oxygen has an unlimited shelf life, and since none of us knows how long we may be without running water, it's wise to have '07' concentrate on hand. One ounce of Aerobic '07' will purify 55 gallons, and you can forget it for the next five years! E-mail me for product information and ordering details.

-- Roy (roy@techcomm.net), September 18, 1998.

Jeff, I agree with you, get the storage containers and local distribution system set up and tested (you don't want leaks in the basement...)

By local distribution system, I mean "whatever" means you are going to need to get eater from clean storage to the kitchen sink: hand pump and temporary piping, well and plumbing system, still and recovery system, bucket, cupped hands, plastic tubing, gallon jug, little brown jug, or whatever.

Dry it out, and wait to fill until late Dec 1999. I can't think of any reason why fresh water would be threatened until after the the troubles start. So rotation would begin "after" 12/20/1999 or so.

Food is different issue: definitely get what you want/need now before shelves empty. Water is on-line delivery regardless of flow. Food and fuel and money has to be shipped and stored.

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), September 18, 1998.

You're probably right about not having to store water too far in advance - unless one of those "other" dates causes trouble...1/1/99...99th day of 1999...the GPS rollover...9/9/99...

-- Mike (gartner@execpc.com), September 18, 1998.

Has anyone thought about the use of water collection and storage - from cisterns to the lowly rain barrel? I got info on this forum about a solar still - watch us have no snow that winter!! When I was little, we had rain barrels at home under all our downspouts - used that to irrigate the gardens AND all of the females washed our hair in that. I'm only 38 and didn't grow up on tobacco road - just had folks that came from farms. http://www.cityfarmer.org has info on the cities of Vancouver and Edmonton, I think, distributing rain barrels to citizens.

-- Melissa (financed@forbin.com), September 20, 1998.

An obvious way to store water and be energy efficient at the same time is to fill your deep freeze unused space with bottles of water. I am told this will stop the freezer using so much power. Then if the power goes out you still have ice keeping it cold and you also have water to drink.

-- Laurane (familyties@rttinc.com), September 21, 1998.