Storing Safe Drinking Water

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Provident Principles and Practices
© David Edwards, 2008

PRINCIPLE: LDS leaders have encouraged us not only to store healthful food but also safe, potable water. They have promised us that as we strive to do this fully, we will be richly blessed (See, for example, Bishop Keith B. McMullin, General Conference, April 2007).

PRACTICES: The Church has described some basic practices for storing water to prepare for the eventuality that water supplies become contaminated or shut down. These instructions can be found at www.providentliving.org/content/list/0,11664,7446-1,00.html

Today, we discuss three ways to store water. Later, we’ll cover emergency sources and purification.

Bottled Water. You can store water in food-grade PET (recycling symbol 1) bottles in shrink-wrapped cases of 24 to 35 bottles per case. No pretreatment is required. This can be a simple way to store potable water. A two-week’s supply in the Lower Sonoran Desert is about 7 cases of 35 half-liter bottles per person. For a family of six, this totals about 42 cases, weighing ~1,600 lbs. Cases can be stored on heavy-duty metal shelving units (rated >400 lbs per shelf); units must be securely placed on a concrete floor or a floor resting on a concrete foundation. Alternatively, cases can be placed one case high along bottoms of closets (with shoes placed on top of the cases), underneath stairwells (this may require modification for access; see future article on this), or under beds in each bedroom (if space permits). Some families incorporate storage in home-built furniture. Be creative!

Used Containers. You can store clean tap water in leak-proof, breakage-resistant, food-grade PET bottles previously used for juices or soft drinks if you (i) wash each bottle thoroughly with soap and water first, (ii) rinse each bottle thoroughly, and (iii) add two drops of unscented, 5.25% sodium hypochlorite bleach per quart, and (iv) cap tightly. The amount of bleach used for safely storing potable water is half that used for treating suspect water. Store bottles upright. Do not use plastic milk containers. They develop leaks after a while, and bacteria grow on absorbed milk residue.

New Drums. You can store clean tap water in new blue, 55-gal food-grade HDPE (symbol 2) drums resting on non-permeable pads on a concrete garage or basement floor. Add 1/8 teaspoon of unscented, 5.25% sodium hypochlorite bleach per gallon, or 6 teaspoons/55 gallons. Although the drums are colored blue, they let some light in. To prevent or inhibit algae growth, store drums in the dark (e.g., using an opaque covering). You will also need to buy a bung wrench and one or two (the second for a backup) hand-operated pumps to pump out the water from the barrels. Avoid used drums. These often contain hard-to-remove absorbed food residue, which leads to microbial growth.

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Additional info: www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/emergency/water.html; http://extension.usu.edu/files/publications/publication/FN_Food_Safety_2006-01pr.pdf