I want to get a shitload of water on hand. I figure the best time to start is now, and I've got a lot of old soft-drink bottles (1.25 and 2 litres) around the house. Tell me, is it safe to store water in them? If I rinse them out with hot water to get the last traces of Coke out, and screw the caps on REALLY tightly after the water is in there, is there any way that the water can.. well, you know, go bad or anything?

Leo

-- Leo (lchampion@ozemail.com.au), August 06, 1999

Answers

yes, the 2-liter bottles are going to become a very hot item for many reasons. don't get rid of them. i actually stopped buying cans over a year ago and switched to the big sodas. i have been storing them for months and months. same with the large plastic juice bottles. i actually washed them out with a bit of dish detergent and hot water, rinsed them, let them air dry, then put the cap on and set it aside. then soon i will fill them with fresh water and 4 drops of clorox (isn't there an h in there somewhere?) bleach (unscented). cap the bottle and put in dark cool place. rumor is, according to michael hyatt's book--beware of storing distilled or spring water wihtout some sort of preservative becasue they are not treated for long term storage and may grow living things.

-- t (applpie@you.com), August 06, 1999.

For specific Y2K preparation questions, it is better to go here:

New Preparation Forum

-- Anonymous99 (Anonymous99@Anonymous99.xxx), August 06, 1999.

we decided to store a 'shitload' of water also. we bought for $300 a 6000 gal stainless steel milk tanker, cut off the wheels and lower section, and buried it next to our house. we're having gutters put in to capture all rainwater, putting it thru a 'roofwasher' first.

use your roof gutters to collect water where possible, and buy a Big Berky water filter to remove all bacteria, virus and other junk.

-- lou (lanny1@ix.netcom.com), August 06, 1999.

What is big berky? I got a Katadyn Combi Pump with extry filters? Is that okay good for 2600 gallons per filter??

-- (have@katadyn.com), August 06, 1999.

"What is big berky? "

Ceramic filter. Much like the Katadyn gravity-feed model.

-- Anonymous99 (Anonymous99@Anonymous99.xxx), August 06, 1999.

Big Berkey looks like a coffee urn, dump a gallon in the top and when you come back it's filtered in the bottom. Got a spigot like on a coffee urn. Stored, the parts nest, making it pretty compact. No pumping. Supposed to do 30 gallons a day, and good for maybe 60,000 gallons.

If you want to store water, check out things like wading pools. But if you put it indoors, figure the weight out first. A gallon is about 8 pounds.

My suggestion: Rent a backhoe, dig a hole in the yard and line it with plastic. A cubic yard is 200 gallons. Tell the neighbors you always wanted a pond, make it look pretty nice, and you can stick 5000 gallons back there without advertising that you're doing Y2k preps. Throw in some fish and you've got fresh meat, too. Then filter it when you want it for drinking. Course, if you're in an apartment, this might get tricky.

-- bw (home@puget.sound), August 06, 1999.

Lou, 6000 gallons for $300 seems too good to be true. Are you sure you didn't mean 600 gallons? How big is this thing?

Even if it's only 600 gallons, it's a good deal. I bought a 2500 gallong plastic storage tank for $1100, and this was the cheapest cost PER GALLON of any size tank I could find. (this tank is eight feet high and eight feet in diameter)

-- Al K. Lloyd (al@ready.now), August 06, 1999.

From: Y2K, ` la Carte by Dancr near Monterey, California

I've reacted to this question at the companion TimeBomb 2000 Preparation Forum, on the new thread I created: Redirection: Storing Water?

-- Dancr (addy.available@my.webpage.neener.autospammers--regrets.greenspun), August 07, 1999.