Captain Dave's Survival Guide
Water Storage and Purification
As mentioned previously, water is probably the most necessary element for human life, with the exception of oxygen. Survivalists frequently talk about the big three: Food, water and shelter. The truth is, they can be in any order. In the winter, shelter may be your most immediate concern. In temperate climes or at sea, water may be your greatest need. Thankfully, is the majority of the U.S. -- although in fewer and fewer locations out west -- water can be easily obtained by the novice. The tricky part comes when you have to purify it, carry it, or store it.
Today, many Americans take water for granted. We open a faucet and out it pours. What a luxury to have hot and cold running water, something that has come about only in the past 50 or 100 years. And what a waste that so many of us let it run down the drain while we brush or teeth, shave and shower. Anyone who has a well powered by an electric motor (as most of rural American does) knows the inconvenience of a power outage when it means not only no electricity, but no water! Not only does this mean no more showers, it means no more flushing the toilet and no drinking water for humans and domesticated animals.
Water is not only important for drinking our first priority and for food preparation, our second priority, but also for hygiene, our third.
When planning your water resources for survival keep all three in mind and plan to deal with three areas:
- Storing water
- Finding or obtaining water in the "wild"
- Purifying water
Storing Water
For your in-home cache or survival retreat stash, you should count on using at least two gallons of water per-person per-day. While this is more water than necessary to survive (except in hot climates or after strenuous exertion) it ensures water is available for hygiene and cooking as well as drinking.
Captain Dave's personal in-home stash has enough water for more than a week, and he lives near a stream and a pond in an area where it rains at least occasionally much of the year.
One way to obtain water for your stash is to buy it. This ensures pure water bottled in a sanitary fashion. It has the added benefit of giving you containers for use after you have consumed it.
Commercial gallon bottles of filtered/purified spring water often carry expiration dates two years after the bottling date. A good rotation program is necessary to ensure your supply of water remains fresh and drinkable (see the previous section on food for information on rotation). Captain Dave purchases cases of six one-gallon jugs, which frequently go on sale. The heavy-duty cardboard boxes stack easily and protect the jugs from rupturing. These are great for use in the kitchen. Smaller 20 ounce of 16 ounce sports bottles or water bottles are also useful for carrying water around for personal consumption, but are much more expensive. However, they are easier to store in your vehicle and bug out bag.
For home use, you can buy filled 5-gallon water cooler jugs at stores such as Home Depot and even some grocery stores. These are not cheap, because they include a deposit on the container itself, but it is a convenient storage method. Just remember that they should be stored in a dark location because the clear bottles do not prevent algae growth.
If you do not buy water for storage, then you must put up your own. Thankfully, this is not very difficult. It's even easier if you start with a purified water source. The trick with storing water is to make sure 1) there are no bacteria, protozoa, viruses or other contamination present when you bottle it and 2) that there is no way for these to be added during the process. That means you need to use clean water and sterilized bottles and utensils during the process. Don't, for example, use a dirty funnel or water from an old garden hose and expect it to store well. Water should come right from a tap into the storage container.
If you prefer to store your own water, don't use milk cartons; it's practically impossible to remove the milk residue (ugh!). Bleach bottles are recommended by others, and while Captain Dave has never used this method, and apparently bleach manufacturers don't recommend it. Captain Dave simply re-uses the water bottles after he drinks the water in them as it nears its expiration date.
If you have a spare refrigerator in the basement or the garage, use PET water bottles (the kind soda or liters of water come in) to fill any available freezer space. In addition to providing you with fresh, easily transportable drinking water, the ice can be used to cool food in the refrigerator in the event of a power failure. Captain Dave has found that these bottles, which are clear and have screw-on caps, will withstand many freeze-thaw cycles without bursting or leaking. (The bottom may distort when frozen, but this isn't a big problem.)
For self-storage of large amounts of water, you're probably better off with containers of at least five gallons. Food-grade plastic storage containers are available commercially in sizes from five gallons to 250 or more. Containers with handles and spouts are usually five to seven gallons, which will weigh between 40 and 56 pounds. Get too far beyond that and you'll have great difficulty moving a full tank.
15 gallon and 30 gallon containers used for food service -- such as delivery of syrups to soda bottlers and other manufacturers -- are often available on the surplus market. After proper cleaning, these are ideal for water storage -- as long as a tight seal can be maintained. 55 gallon drums and larger tanks are also useful for long-term storage. But make sure you have a good pump on hand!
Clean, new containers designed and FDA approved for food contact are best. Containers that previously held water are second best. Containers that are food safe and used to hold food are OK, but not ideal. Never use containers that used to hold non-food items. For example, do not use containers that held cleansers, chemicals, automotive supplies, fuel, and other household or industrial products. These just are not safe to re-use.
Before you start, rinse whatever bottle or tank you are using with a bleach solution to kill any bacteria or germs that may be present. Rinse with good water and you should be good to go.
Solutions designed to be added to water to prepare it for long-term storage are commercially available. Follow the label instructions. Bleach can also be used to treat tap water from municipal sources. Added at a rate of about 1 teaspoon per 10 gallons, bleach can ensure the water will remain drinkable. Captain Dave recommends rotating the water in storage tanks every year.
Once you're in a survival situation where there is a limited amount of water, conservation is an important consideration. While drinking water is critical, water is also necessary for rehydrating and cooking dried foods. Water from boiling pasta, cooking vegetables and similar sources can and should be retained and may be drunk after it has cooled or used to make soup. Canned vegetables also contain liquid that can be consumed, as long as it is not too salty. This not only conserves water, it provides vitamins that have leached out of the vegetables during preparation
To preserve water, you may also save water from washing your hands, clothes and dishes and use it to flush toilets.
Using Pool and Spa Water
Water from pools and spas may be convenient and handy, but should not be used for drinking, cooking or food prep. Use them to flush toilets and for cleaning clothes and such, but not for consumption. While the chlorine in pools does kill germs and purify the water, there are too many other chemicals added to make these safe for drinking. This includes non-foaming agents, PH balancers, flocculating agents and other substances that do not belong in your drinking water. Pool and Spa water is designed for external use only.
Short Term Water Storage
People who have electric well pumps have learned the lesson of filling up all available pots and pans when a thunderstorm is brewing. What would you do if you knew your water supply would be disrupted in an hour?
Here are a few options in addition to filling the pots and pans:
The simplest option is to put two or three heavy-duty plastic trash bags (avoid those with post-consumer recycled content) inside each other. Then fill the inner bag with water. You can even use the trash can to give structure to the bag. (A good argument for keeping your trash can fairly clean!)
Fill your bath tub almost to the top. While you probably won't want to drink this water, it can be used to flush toilets, wash your hands, etc.
Keep plastic five gallon pails on hand and fill them up with water.
Have several five-gallon or seven-gallon plastic containers designed for water. These are sold in the camping and outdoor section of Wal-Mart and other stores. They are usually blue or green, which helps prevent light from penetrating which can lead to the formation of algae.
If you are at home, a fair amount of water will be stored in your water pipes and related plumbing system. To get access to this water, first close the valve to the outside as soon as possible. This will prevent the water from running out as pressure to the entire system drops and will also prevent contaminated water from entering your house.
Then open a cold water faucet on the top floor. This will let air into the system so a vacuum doesn't hold the water in. Next, you can open a faucet in the basement. Gravity should allow the water in your pipes to run out the open faucet. You can repeat this procedure for both hot and cold systems.
Your hot water heater will also have plenty of water inside it. You can access this water from the valve on the bottom. Again, you may need to open a faucet somewhere else in the house to ensure a smooth flow of water. Sediment often collects in the bottom of a hot water heater. While a good maintenance program can prevent this, it should not be dangerous. Simply allow any stirred up dirt to again drift to the bottom or filter it out before using the water.
Finding or Obtaining Water
There are certain climates and geographic locations where finding water will either be extremely easy or nearly impossible. You'll have to take your location into account when you read the following. Captain Dave's best suggestion: Buy a guide book tailored for your location, be it desert, jungle, arctic or temperate clime.
Wherever you live, your best bet for finding a source of water is to scout out suitable locations and stock up necessary equipment before an emergency befalls you. With proper preparedness, you should know not only the location of the nearest streams, springs or other water source but also specific locations where it would be easy to fill a container and the safest way to get it home. Often even dry stream beds will reveal water if you dig in them. Small amounts of water can be soaked up with a cloth that is then rung out into a larger containment vessel. This is a slow process, but if it is the only source of water, it is worth it. You can use the same technique to gather dew off plants early in the morning.
Preparedness also means having on hand an easily installable system for collecting rain water. Many people use 55-gallon rain barrels to capture rain from their roof tops as it pours down their gutter spouts. During non-emergencies, this water can be used for watering gardens, but this is an excellent system and can be easily adapted to capturing water for household use during an emergency. Rain water is often preferred for clothes washing as it is naturally soft. Even rainwater should be filtered, boiled or otherwise purified before drinking and use for food preparation.
Another option is to spread large tarps or sheets of plastic to capture rain. By tilting the tarps, collected water can be capture in barrels and other containers for storage and later use.
However you collect water, remember that your filters will last longer and perform better if you give them a source of water that is largely free of debris, grit, sand and other sediment. If you have a cloudy water source, allowing the water to rest for some time will cause some of the dirt to drop to the bottom. This allows the cleaner water to be scooped or siphoned from the top.
Purification
While you may think any water will do in a pinch, water that is not purified may make you sick, possibly even killing you. In a survival situation, with little or no medical attention available, you need to remain as healthy as possible. A bad case of the runs is terribly uncomfortable in the best of times and potentially deadly in an emergency. Cholera outbreaks and other illnesses during an after a flood, earthquake or other disaster are often caused by unclean drinking water.
Boiling water is an excellent method for purifying running water you gather from natural sources. It doesn't require any chemicals, or expensive equipment -- all you need is a large pot and a good fire or similar heat source. Plus, a rolling boil for 20 or 30 minutes should kill common bacteria such as giardia and cryptosporidium. One should remember that boiling water will not remove foreign contaminants such as radiation, chemicals, or heavy metals.
To remove these contaminants, you need to use a filter or distill the water. The best way to distill water is to boil it and then capture the resulting steam and allow it to cool and condense back into water. The devices required to do this resembles a still, and it's quite a bit of trouble and consumes a great deal of fuel. Using a filter is an easier, faster option
Commercial purification/filter devices made by companies such as Katadyn are the best choices for rendering contaminated water safe. They range in size from small pump filters designed for backpackers to large filters designed for entire camps. Probably the best filtering devices for survival retreats are the model where you pour water into the top and allow it to slowly seep through the media into a reservoir on the bottom. No pumping is required. This let's gravity do the work and functions 24 hours a day.
On the down side, most such filtering devices are expensive and have a limited capacity. Filters are good for anywhere from 200 liters for a small portable model to 20 or 30 thousands of gallons for a more expensive filter. Some filters used fiberglass and activated charcoal. Others use impregnated resin or even ceramic elements. Generally, activated charcoal removes chemicals and other toxic substances while filters remove bacteria, protozoa and, in some cases, viruses.
Chemical additives are another, often less suitable option for emergency purification. The water purification pills sold to hikers and campers have a limited shelf life, especially once the bottle has been opened. Captain Dave considers these good for the car's emergency kit, as long as they are frequently replaced. They can impart a taste to the water and are not ideal for long term, repetitive use.
Ideally, you should have several levels of filters ranging from camp-wide use to individual use:
- First, you should filter any naturally gathered water through several layers of cloth to remove as much grit and dirt as possible. This pre-filtering will extend the life of your traditional water filters and keep them from clogging.
- Second, you should have a camp filter that is gravity fed for use in your home or retreat.
- Third, you should have one or more portable filters that are easy to carry about and can be used to produce filtered water almost anywhere after just a few pumps.
- Fourth, Captain Dave recommends sports-bottle type filters for bug out bags and car emergency kits. Rather than use a pump, these have a straw-like aperture, and when you suck on the straw it draws the water through a filtration element. Captain Dave has one of these in his car survival kit and one attached to his bug out bag with a carabiner.
If you are caught unprepared and have no filtering mechanism, you can make one that is better than nothing. The following pour-though filtering systems can be made in an emergency and will remove many contaminants. It' is not perfect, but it is better than nothing.
- Take a five or seven gallon pail (a 55-gallon drum can also be used for a larger scale system) and drill or punch a series of small holes on the bottom. The holes should let the water drip out, not pour through.
- Place several layers of cloth on the bottom of the bucket, this can be anything from material cut from a denim jacket to an old table cloth.
- Add a thick layer of sand (preferred) or loose dirt. This will be the main filtering element, so you should add at least half of the pail's depth. Compact it in the bucket.
- Add another few layers of cloth, weighted down with a layer of gravel.
- Your home-made filter should be several inches below the top of the bucket.
- Place another bucket or other collection device under the holes you punched on the bottom.
- Pour collected or gathered water into the top of your new filter system. As gravity works its magic, the water will filter through the media and drip out the bottom, into your collection device. If the water is cloudy or full of sediment (as it may for the first few uses) simply let it drop to the bottom and draw the cleaner water off the top of your collection device with a straw or tube.
(If you have a stash of activated charcoal, possibly acquired from an aquarium dealer, you can put a layer inside this filter. Place a layer of cloth above and especially below the charcoal. This will remove other contaminants and reduce any unpleasant smell or taste.)
While this system may not be the best purification method, it has been successfully used in the past. If you have no water source but a contaminated puddle, oily highway runoff or similar polluted source, the filter may be better than nothing, but it's not a great option.
Once the system has been established and works, you must remember to change the sand or dirt regularly.
