How will we know if the water in our area is safe to use? I know we will be able to detect a higher amount of clorine in the water by smell and taste (happened after the January 1994 Northridge earthquake). But, if floride is odorless and tasteless, how can we determine if there's too much in the water? Is there some way of testing the water?

-- Linda Hitchings (lindasue1@earthlink.net), December 07, 1999

Answers

I think Stan had a good answer to this question. In general -- you can buy a water-testing kit in your neighborhood pet store. I think you will be able to test for chlorine and fluoride. As for me -- I will drink stored spring water and listen to local news.

-- Brooklyn (MSIS@cyberdude.com), December 07, 1999.

----AAARGGGGGHHHHHHH! You STORE safe water RIGHT NOW, and then you MAKE SURE later that your water is safe by using your own bleach, or good quality water filters, or whatever. You CAN'T TRUST what may or may not be coming out of the tap, especially after any shutdowns, etc. getting some little test kit WILL NOT give you clean water, no matter how many times you use it. Sorry about that "arghhhh",I'm not trying to be mean, just that "water" is survival 101, first hour, first lesson. You really need to get it in gear here, if you want your family to have the real "insurance" it needs to be safe. good luck, better skill! oh ya, frankly, city water ISN'T safe NOW to drink, it's fulla crap. granted, better than most other countries, but still chock fulla poisons. get another source, and quickly, please.

-- zog (zzoggy@yahoo.com), December 07, 1999.

Do a search for "water" in the catagories below.. or on the prep forum. You might be able to detect if there is too much chlorine or some other bug-killing chemical, but the real danger might be if there is too little chemical to kill the beasties, and you won't know till the whole town gets sick. In Milwaukee 400,000 people got sice (about 1/2 the population I think). Flu like symptoms... drink more fluids, right? Unless the water is the problem. Safest to assume the worst and drink bottled, boiled, sterilized or pasteurized water for a few days to a couple of weeks. Some of the prior threads have good links to look up. Get a $5.00 WAPI to indicate when pasteurization temp. is reached (you don't have to boil).

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

It's real simple. You store 10 gallons or more of drinking water per person. Soon as you have ANY doubts (like, suddenly you notice it's 1/1/2000), you drink your stored water, replace it with fresh from the tap, and rotate your stock. You won't be drinking the new (suspect) water until 10 days after the rollover, by which time (if there really is a problem) you'll have sick neighbors all around, because 95% of them won't do this. So if your neighbors aren't getting sick, you just keep on rotating your stock.

You have a 10-day water flywheel, and 10 days warning.

-- bw (home@puget.sound), December 07, 1999.

Anyone have any knowledge they care to share re. using potassium metabisulfite (or sodium metabisulfite) to sterilize/ preserve sterility of plain water?

I use it in winemaking and preservation.
How much or how will it work when bottling tap water, or later lake water?

Any suggestions, ideas or leads anyone?
T.I.A.

-- wine (must@carboy.com), December 07, 1999.

I live near Milwaukee where that problem happened. Apparently it is not that easy to detect those tiny crypto. cysts in the water, even though regualr testing is being done. So the first Milw. knew there was a problem was when lots of folks were already sick. I would not drink city water anytime. Anybody who drinks it the first couple weeks of 2000 is really taking a chance. You'll know whether it's OK or not only after the fact. That is, if you get sick then you'll know. STORE GOOD WATER NOW. LOTS OF IT.

-- Shivani Arjuna (SArjuna@aol.com), December 07, 1999.