Water crisis

[catherine]

Yikes your neighbors were advenurous. Even 50+ years ago, we didn't drink lake water. There was a local spring in the camp complex that us kids would be sent to to collect water, accessed by a path in the woods. Of course, me being signficantly younger than my two older siblings, there would be horror stories of all sorts told to me including a haunted cabin we had to walk by.

Good times.

Later with progress, Herbie who owned the cottage we rented, got town water and we were allowed to go to the barn and help ourselves. By then, the siblings were driving so it was just an easy ride up the road.

yeah, my neighbors are pretty rugged, but that's what I like about them. I just feel that in general, people should be able to drink out of natural water sources. Such an anomaly to have to consider all the industrial waste that has probably poured into our water sources and rendered it useless. Crying shame.

[bae]

Out of curiosity, how many of you folks:

- have a several-day supply of water set aside for emergencies?
- have a means of purifying water on a sufficient scale for your daily needs?

[catherine]

Out of curiosity, how many of you folks:

- have a several-day supply of water set aside for emergencies?
- have a means of purifying water on a sufficient scale for your daily needs?

What is your advice as to quantity and specific ways to purify water?

[bae]

What is your advice as to quantity and specific ways to purify water?

I think it very much depends on your circumstances and resources.

Here, I keep a quantity of bleach on hand, a Big Berkey filter, some smaller filters for hiking/camping/rescue work (Lifestraws and such), and a couple of hand-cranked filters that produce a couple quarts/minute, and a hand-cranked desal filter.

I'd start with bleach and a filter of some sort.

[Rogar]

I think water issues here in the arid west can be different than other areas. The water board of our large metro area recommends reducing meat consumption and trying a plant based diet. It's probably is different for local pasture raised beef in some places. People tend to focus on urban landscape maintenance and tend to overlook the influence of agriculture and meat production one's water footprint, but it is a little more complicated.

[Yppej]

I supervised the creation of an island-wide well-monitoring/quality testing network so we could avoid Total Disaster.

This post is a good example of what I have noted about bae and his delusions of grandeur. It's not that he worked on this project, or worked with others - no he was the big boss in charge who supervised, and his heroics prevented Total Disaster.

[bae]

This post is a good example of what I have noted about bae and his delusions of grandeur. It's not that he worked on this project, or worked with others - no he was the big boss in charge who supervised, and his heroics prevented Total Disaster.

"**** off", he explained.

Wait, I shall elaborate...

I was in charge of the village's water user's association. Elected by the membership and the Board. Our system serves ~1100 residences and businesses within the urban growth area designated by the state and the county. We maintain a wide network of wells and groundwater sources, including a large reservoir up on one of the mountains here. We operate several water treatment and filtering plants. We consistently won awards for efficiency, safety, and water taste.

During my dozen year tenure on the board, as president of the board, I launched initiatives to create the well monitoring network first within our designated area, then island-wide, then county-wide. I participated in the design of the project, the data analysis, securing the funding, overseeing the construction, and so on. I also received training and certification in heavy equipment operation and water system operation, and participated hands-on when appropriate.

I did a lot of other fun and useful things for the water system too - our remote monitoring/operation system for the mountain plants, so I and the guys don't have to hike up there in a storm to fix things, backup power systems, post-9/11 security systems, a hydropower generation system using our pressure reduction equipment to generate power as the water makes its way down the mountain, the design of post-earthquake recovery plans (including land purchase, site design, and plant design for a desal plant to be delivered by barge post-quake), redesign of our water tariff system to balance residential/commercial/ag use, etc. etc.

So, if you want to talk about water, I can do it all day.

It is a shame that the expertise and experience of others seem to trigger you, so I suspect we won't be having that conversation.

[Rogar]

What is your advice as to quantity and specific ways to purify water?

I have commercial Port Aqua iodine tablets from my camping gear. They have a shelf life and the water tastes bad without a neutralizer, but I trust them for microbiological contaminants. I suspect chorine does a similar job as long as the correct amount is added and there is not a lot of other organic material. I've also used small hand pump filters. They will clog up quickly if there is much sediment. Without looking it up, I suspect neither are very effective against certain pollutants like lead or benzene. For home use I use Brita Longlast filters to eliminate any heavy metals, choline and other chemical contaminants. I filter all of my home drinking and most of my cooking water with a Brita filter. Possibly over kill, but it's cheaper than bottled water, which isn't always that pure, and it makes coffee and other drinking water taste better.

A couple of specifics to look up if so inclined. I think in a big disaster where I had to resort to questionable sources, I'd both disinfect and then filter, although that might not always be perfect.

[herbgeek]

Bae does way way more for his community than you do Jeppy. That's just a fact. No illusions/delusions are involved. As i understand much if not all is volunteer/unpaid.

You likely can't do a lot of what he does either for strength (like the fire fighting training) or higher math skills, but there are still significant things you could do to improve your community. It seems to really get under your skin that the more people contribute, the more opportunities they are presented with. But this is available to you as well.

Complaining, criticizing and tearing people down is easy. Providing value and lasting improvement is hard. You could make the same choices.

[herbgeek]

As far as water, we have a deep well, and lose power for more than a few hours maybe once or twice a year. I usually have a couple of days of drinking water on hand and will add a few gallons for the winter. I have purifier tablets and a couple of Lifestraws but never had to use them. The big issue with power outages is toilet flushing so we've taken to filling up a few buckets when storms are predicted.

I was a little concerned about the aquifer when the neighbor across the street was watering the lawn for hours at a time many days a week, but they sold and moved.