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

This thread is categorized under Water and Water Storage I'm redirecting a thread from Storing Water? on the TimeBomb2000 Discussion Forum.

Where I live, we have seven straight months of zero precipitation every year. If, as I am, you are planning to store a couple thousand gallons of water or more, I'm thinking it would be a good time to fill those containers and start rotating that water into use. The water service only has a certain limited capacity to supply water. If everyone waits until the last days to fill their bathtubs and sinks, as most people (GIs and DGIs alike) state is their plan, this will cause problems with water pressure, and everybody won't get what they hoped, including you. This could trigger a panic dynamic.

If we take our water now, we won't be contributing to this problem. Also, we may help the situation by allowing the water services to ramp up. If you don't even have your storage containers yet, it's getting very late.

Another good reason to lay the water stock in now is that things could pop earlier than you expect. There could be a natural disaster where you live, or some kind of war-like scenario. Or the water service could even go on involuntary rationing before any trouble is detected by you.

Filling the tanks is a labor intensive job. Even sticking a hose into a big tank and coming back later has its impact on your schedule, since you have to be careful to not forget to turn it off. Things will get more hectic toward the end of the year, and it will be best if we GIs haven't procrastinated on this number one priority. Having this done will bring down our stress level, allow us to cross something off our lists that just grow longer each day, and free our minds to move on to the next priority.

What with all this recent talk about the "emergency seizure" clauses in county plans and presidential directives, it occurs to me that we could have some trouble hanging on to our water. Most people have a pretty consistent record at the water company, so a big jump in usage could be easily detected if this project gets back burnered much longer. If you want to keep a low profile, stretch the job out over several days, but get started right away. This way, someone at the water company or some government inspector will be less likely to turn their attention to your usage record. Yeah, yeah... color me paranoid... I know...

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

Answers

I found out that it is a good practice to fill large holding tanks gradually if you are pumping from your well. It is August and water levels in the West are naturally low. Even at more than 100 feet, my pump started to suck up some bits of clay/silt at about the 250 gallon mark. Needed to stop pumping and let the "well" settle and refill. Luckilly, the tank is to be used for irrigation at this point. Hopefully, it will "bleed" off any silt from the bottom when I irrigate before I winterize for a supplementary drinking source.

-- marsh (armstrng@sisqtel.net), August 07, 1999.

Don't know but there may be outages later in the fall, when the utilities are testing. It's on my mind.

-- Mara Wayne (MaraWayne@aol.com), August 07, 1999.

Marsh, you might want to determine the rate at which you can pump withouth drawing down so much, and put a flow control valve upstream of the tank, and let the tank fill more slowly; this will avoid the problem you are experiencing.

Al

-- Al K. Lloyd (al@ready.now), August 07, 1999.


Mara.. I don't know anything about water systems, but it seems that in addition to the possibility of shortages as water/sewer companies do their testing, there could be water *problems*.. contaminated water.. too much of some chemical, or not enough to kill off the beasties. Just wondering. Might be another good reason to have water stored early. In Milwaukee when they had that contamination problem in 1993 over 400,000 got sick (and some died) before they figured it out. Folks thought it was the flu and followed the usual recommendations to drink more water. So it might be a good idea starting NOW to be aware of any illness outbreaks and consider the *possibility* of a water problem as the source. Going to stored water or using pasteurization techniques might be good practice for Y2K anyway, and it might put you ahead of the curve if there are any testing "glitches" that effect the safety of your drinking water.

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), August 07, 1999.

Thanks Al for the advice. My brain is fried at this point. They never taught gals of my generation to do this type of stuff. I don't think I can cram any more electrical, plumbing, carpentry, mechanical, engineering, horticulture, veterinarian, medical stuff in my cranium for a while. Wanna come show me how? - lol. I will bake you brownies - lol.

-- marsh (armstrng@sisqtel.net), August 08, 1999.


Marsh....

You have brownies ......I will travel !!!!!

Richard....Handy man

-- Richard (Kingrz@webtv.net), August 08, 1999.


Richard - brwnies are colling on the stove, lol I like a man who is easily pleased.

-- marsh (armstrng@sisqtel.net), August 09, 1999.

Marsh......

Cooling?........I like my brownies gooie & hOtt!!!!!!!

Richard.....

-- Richard (Kingrz@webtv.net), August 10, 1999.


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