Hey, you know, in many parts of the world, you can capture rainwater to use for everything except drinking. It doesn't take much stored water for drinking purposes. And in some areas, rainwater is still safe to drink. Just catch it out of your gutter downspouts.

-- malcolm drake (jumpoff@echoweb.net), June 03, 1999

Answers

Once rainwater touches a "dirty" object, it's contaminated. Unless your roof and gutters are sterilized daily, your assumption is faulty. Rainwater must be caught DIRECTLY from the sky, else you must filter/treat it. And even directly from the sky, there are still chemicals in the water (what's "acid rain" after all?)

Also, the amount of water required for a single person is one gallon per day. Got a family? Living in a rain forest?

Just random thoughts...

-- Dennis (djolson@pressenter.com), June 03, 1999.

Can anyone give Malcom a link to an earlier post on this topic.I couldn't find it but remember it discussed a report about the heavy levels of pesticide in rainfall.Also there was something about the dangers of collecting water from an asbestos roof in one of the replies.

-- Chris (griffen@globalnet.co.uk), June 03, 1999.

I think Malcolm has a great point. We are very wasteful with our water.

He did point out that it is easy to use caught rainwater for anything EXCEPT drinking though I wouldn't hesitate if it was fresh. Of course we don't have acid rain here and the roof is on my privately owned home. I have rolls of sheet/poly plastic for multiple purposes, one of which is to cover one part of my roof (or?) to funnel clean water to clean/new garbage cans if need be. A lady I visited with today (has a website: www.northcoast.com/~tms/) talked about doing this now as practice using the gutters and downspout and then using it for garden, etc.

Cisterns used to be popular and still are in other countries. Thank you for the post Malcolm.

Sincerely, Kristi

-- Kristi (securx@succeed.net), June 03, 1999.

Rain catchment links:

Basic Survival Rain Water Filter System

Collecting Rainwater

Har vested Rainwater Guidelines Part 1

Harvested Rainwater Guidelines Part 3

Rainwater can be used in the garden, for toilet flushing, laundry, etc. IMHO, a cathcment system of some type is a no-brainer.

Excellent question Malcolm.

-- Bingo1 (howe9@pop.shentel.net), June 03, 1999.

This comes from the April 3 NEW SCIENTIST:

PESTICIDES ARE FALLING FROM THE SKIES

A new study found that much of the rain falling in Europe contains such high levels of disolved pesticides that it would be illegal to supply it as drinking water.

Swiss studies have found that rain is laced with toxic levels of atrazine, alachlor and other commonly-used crop sprays...

-- waterboy (waterboy@waterwater.com), June 03, 1999.

Dennis,

Don't be so anal retentive (or is there a hyphen in anal-retentive :)

If your air and roof are contaminated don't drink the water, obviously.

You don't need to live in a rainforest to get a lot of water from your roof run off. If you have, say, a roof area of 2000 feet, as you would find on a small to medium size house with two foot eaves, you would get 2000x7.48 / 12 = 1200 gallons per inch of rain you receive. Where I live, it rains about 45 inches per year. That translates into 45x1200=54,000 gallons per year.A family of four uses about 200 gallons of water per day; therefore, 54,000/200=270 days worth of water, without even rationing. If you want more, build a bigger house. Or ration.

-- malcolm drake (jumpoff@echoweb.net), June 03, 1999.

The most expensive piece of our Y2K preps (by FAR!) is an 8300 gallon underground cistern beside our barn. I just got the electric pump working yesterday (no more hauling water from the house for the animals and garden. Whoo hoo!); the hand pump will follow in a couple of weeks.

The biggest reason we put this in is that our well is really deep (450 ft.) and so a hand pump was out of the question. This sized water supply can handle us, our animals, and our neighbors through an entire winter with proper rationing.

One thing you need if you want to catch rainwater is a diversion system so that the first 30-50 gallons of runoff from your roof gets shunted to the ground, then the rest goes into the cistern. That'll keep the dust and bird dookie out of your water. We have a Katadyn filter for our own drinking water; the animals will just have to drink it right from the sky. The book Rainwater Harvesting For the Mechanically Challenged (or something to that effect) is good, albeit pricey for its size.

-- David Palm (djpalm64@yahoo.com), June 03, 1999.

Malcolm-I use rainwater every spring and summer. I set a large plastic trashcan on the back porch under a valley on my roof and when it's full I cover it with a board. I use it to water house plants as well as potted plants. I expect that I will have at least two more cans to fill as well this next spring and that they will contribute to the household wash water.

Good question, thanks-Linda

-- newbiebutnodummy (Linda@home.com), June 03, 1999.

I was planning on using gutters to collect rainwater from my roof into a rain barrel (and then run the water through a water purifier) .....just had a new roof put on the house.....when the old roof was taken off, the shingles were thrown on the grass. Some grass died where the shingles were thrown (a friend said likely from TAR in the roof).... My new roof also is zinc impregnated to prevent fungus growth.... ( I don't know if this type of zinc can cause zinc toxicity)......

Now I am wondering if it will be safe to use rainwater from my gutters even if I put it through a water purifier that I bought....

Anyone have any answers on this??????

-- KLT (KLTEVC@aol.com), June 03, 1999.

KLT,

I'd start with a search of dejanews for misc.survivalism posts by A.T. Hagan or Carl Stiles. That'll give you a good head start.

Don't think Carl has been posting recently, but you might ask him directly if the search doesn't turn up anything.

-- whoever (me@here.com), June 04, 1999.

KLT,

Set it up as you plan, get a sample, run it through your purifyer/filter, and then take it to be tested. Most water departments will test it for you, and some will come and get it.

We are waiting for the results from our well water test.

You could even tell them what you are looking for so that they won't miss it in the analysis. Give them samples from each of your steps along the way.

-- J (jart5@bellsouth.net), June 04, 1999.