Purifying water for survival

What do people do, what is the best filters, bleach ect. been all over the net searching. Anyone have experience with this? My granfathers farm is close to me, and has a 260year old spring house water is always flowing, but down the road if that option is not available, just wondering. Seen the struggles with people in Sandy. being without power that long is going to cause problems. Actually thought about putting a hand pump in my well casing, however water is high in iron and acid, and is hard




Eric

Me thinks that if you got no water, that hand pump pullin up irony, acidy & hard wet water will taste better then any bottled crap out there--which won't be available anyway. Just an old farmers thoughts

Coalfire wrote:What do people do, what is the best filters, bleach ect. been all over the net searching. Anyone have experience with this? My granfathers farm is close to me, and has a 260year old spring house water is always flowing, but down the road if that option is not available, just wondering. Seen the struggles with people in Sandy. being without power that long is going to cause problems. Actually thought about putting a hand pump in my well casing, however water is high in iron and acid, and is hard




Eric

freetown fred wrote:Me thinks that if you got no water, that hand pump pullin up irony, acidy & hard wet water will taste better then any bottled crap out there--which won't be available anyway. Just an old farmers thoughts

Coalfire wrote:What do people do, what is the best filters, bleach ect. been all over the net searching. Anyone have experience with this? My granfathers farm is close to me, and has a 260year old spring house water is always flowing, but down the road if that option is not available, just wondering. Seen the struggles with people in Sandy. being without power that long is going to cause problems. Actually thought about putting a hand pump in my well casing, however water is high in iron and acid, and is hard




Eric

That is what I am thinking old school. At least I could still get water.

Hey Eric, I don't have any answers but I do have a customer that was asking me about putting in a hand pump in to her well. she didn't know how deep it was though. I guess you could put a black plastic well pipe down a well that already has a submersible pump in it. If it had a foot valve and you had a hand pump that could pull the water up all the way you would be in business. You would have to have the clearance around the submersible pump or at least get the foot valve below water.
The old well here is only 25' deep, I've been meaning to figure out the same kind of setup. It has a jet pump inside the basement. They got a new deep well here years ago, when the old one either dried up in the summer or started providing really dirty rusty water.

I have seen affordable used food industry poly containers for sale, on craigs, like 300 gallon ones with steel cages around them; I guess you could try to store water but then you have to keep it protected from freezing and contamination.
There are hand operated filter/pump devices that can purify small amounts of water out there. Water purification tablets that might be good for all those nasty micro organisms.
We were relatively lucky after Sandy, minor tree damage; but our town was one of the last in the local area to get power restored. I drove 60 miles one way to Allentown to get gas one day. No gas, no generator; no generator, no well pump, no furnace!

In just the 3 or 4 years I've been hanging around this great forum; I've seen the topics go from typical issues and interests to all this impending doom survivalist stuff. It disheartens me but I guess we all gotta hang in and do the best we can...

I've got a couple of these. Haven't tried it yet. Still waiting for the S to HTF first.



I also like this idea using a PVC pipe and a rubber ball, for getting well water out of a well with no pump and no power:

http://livethemotto.blogspot.com/2010/0 ... ucket.html

Here's a variation using a bulb syringe:

I've thought this through and am set up with a backpacker's filtration system that's good for everything but viruses. That requires the iodine filter and a neutralizer additive to get rid of the iodine flavor. Never had to use it for a water supply except for a few long hikes. I keep a few extra filters around. I think I've had this unit for over 10 years . There are numerous springs near here and a several streams close by.

I've also considered low tech - getting a pail that's designed to fit inside a 6" well casing. It's long and narrow and has a foot valve in the bottom. I saw this for sale in that Amish store that starts with an "L" ... can't recall the name. Lower it down to your static water level, let it fill and lift. Sounds like a lot of work so I like your separate poly line and hand pump idea better!

If all fails for me, my water well static at 30'. There's a hill behind the well that's at least 50' lower than the well head. I contemplate lowering the garden hose into the well, filling it up with water, pulling it out and establish a siphon at the bottom of the hill. I actually do have enough garden hose to do this! Thoughts?

That'll work as long as you can get the water above the well casing in the hose, and seal the end tight while you get it below the level of the well. I guess drop it in, give it a while to purge the air out, cap it, then pull it out & get it down the hill.

I like low tech solutions.

An above ground pool can hold 20-30k gallons and be hand for less than 1,500. Use muriatic acid and baking soda to adjust ph, then pool shock basically double strength clorox to kill any germs. In summer You can also run a chlorine generator and pump off solar power and all you need is add salt.

The 250 gallon water tanks i also seen on craigslist all the time for under 100$.

You can use a taylor kit to test and adjust ph. Baking soda or soda ash will raise ph, muriatic acid will lower it. Aeration will also raise ph over time.

http://www.amazon.com/Taylor-Complete-F ... B0002IXIIG

There is also slow release chlorine tablets.

Here is an interesting article on hydrocloric and ozone killing h1n1 virus.
http://phys.org/news176991361.html

Hydrocloric
http://www.sciencecompany.com/Hydrochlo ... 3C670.aspx

Ozone generator
http://www.amerimerc.com/pool-ozone-generator.htm

Fascinating how the human body produces many of these chemicals.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastric_acid

As far as the metals you can use a sequestering agent and then vacuum/filter out metals.
http://www.poolwizard.net/problems/copper-iron.htm
http://www.lesliespool.com/Home/Pool-Ch ... 14834.html

Activated charcol (crushed anthracite) is an excellent filter. Sorry about pushing coal into this thread but like heating your house, filtering your water is a job it can do reliably and at a very reasonable cost.