Hurley's Gold

I like to drink a lot...of water. TX dry climate and heat, what's your water plan?

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  • ScorpionHunter

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    Aug 22, 2012
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    My parents live in colorado and they had a rain water collection system on their house for their garden and the sheriff showed up and told them to take it down or they would and they wouldn't be easy about it either.

    I'd heard about cases like that in CO, where all the rain belongs to the drainage area and if you're capturing it off your roof you're stealing, or something like that. But I thought they changed the rules to allow it?
     

    HKaltwasser

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    Here's the first source when it's running. A little stream on my property. When it dries up, I'll tap the tank.
    fo8q.jpg
     

    jtw2

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    Very interesting info. Just starting the process of creating a long term water plan. Going to look into a large catchment system out by Llano. Anybody have some tanks they want to unload let me know.
     

    Sapper740

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    I'm on full rainwater collection. No public water, no well. We have a 40,000 gallon tank that's full now after the recent rains, and that could last us for about 18 months. The filtration is a sand filter at the tank along with an ozone generator, and two canister filters and a UV light at the house. I haven't actually looked into this, but I suppose you could do without the sand filter if you have a decent filter at the collection point. The ozone is a good disinfectant, but bleach could replace that, I suppose. The final thing is the UV light which kills just about everything and draws about .5 amps. If you can run that and a pump off of some solar, you might have a stand alone system that could sustain you for a while (assuming it rains).
    At three gallons per day for drinking and hygiene, 40,000/3/540 = enough water for 25 people. You got a large family?
     

    ScorpionHunter

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    Aug 22, 2012
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    At three gallons per day for drinking and hygiene, 40,000/3/540 = enough water for 25 people. You got a large family?

    Two adults and two kids. We use about 2,000 gallons per month. We don't wash the vehicles or water the lawn. I plan on building a separate collection system for a garden. That said, I think water use isn't linear. In other words, the same amount of water might wash the dishes for 4 people or 10 people. 2 gallons of water might boil 1 pound or 3 pounds of spaghetti. I haven't actually tested that, but the idea is that if you organize the water use, you might support a much larger number of people. It would require a lot of planning and discipline, though.
     

    pistolpadre

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    NOTH'N is as important as water, and by an off the chart ratio.. it's really simple, you live as long as you have water..

    so now that S/H, and hk wasser have established a high point.. uhh.. got two toilets.. wait, wait.. they aren't those low water use whimp things... no sir, talk'n maybe10 gal in each tank.. AND!! 3 maybe 4 half empty water bottles in the refrigerator..
     

    preyn2

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    Scorpion - Have you coordinated with Driftwood VFD to be sure they can hook up to your fire water tanks? And have you considered your own firefighting equipment?
     

    Flewda

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    Some great stuff in here. Really great rianwater setups, too. I really want to get a system like that installed when I get some land.

    A buddy of mine works for a water company and he's made comments in the past that stored water can go bad. Not sure to what extent. Even if it's not in the sunlight. But I imagine it could be revitalized if you treated it before drinking (That is if you had it stored for a long time before cracking it open). And would certainly take my chances with water sealed in a jug than from the stagnant pool at the back of our neighborhood.

    I live in the burbs and the house doesn't have a lot of storage places. I don't want to store anything water in the garage because I don't want the heat causing any sort of melting in the summers and the water leeching it out. So what I did was buy the Ozarka 5 gallon water boxes (we get them at Costco for I think $3 or so each). The cool thing with these is that they come in two 2.5 gallon jugs that are inside a thick cardboard box. You can stack up to 4 boxes high. They fit pretty nicely inside even small closets. We have quite a few of these around the house in various closets. Then we also have probably a half dozen or more packs of water bottles (32 per pack). These are usually between 4-5 gallons each. With the water bottles we tend to use them when we're going out, or at church, and I always make sure my wife has at least 1 or 2 in the diaper bag in case she gets thirsty when she's going out with the kiddo. So we slowly go through these. As we open a new pack I'll buy a new pack to replace it. If I have some extra cash and I see a sale I'll usually pick up an extra one or two. The Ozarka boxes we usually will rotate in and out, too. We have a Brita filter pitcher for our everyday use (Austin water is teh suck) but as the Ozarka nears its expiration we'll usually drink and replace the box. I agree with most folks here that the water will last far beyond that date, but it doesn't bother me to drink and replace just to keep it fresh, and plus it's good tastin water. Also, with these boxes it's good to inspect them every few weeks/months. We had one of the bottom boxes (when we kept them stacked 4 high) leak and over time the leak weakened the cardboard and it collapsed causing all the boxes to fall. Not a huge deal, but something to just keep an eye on. Made a loud bang which freaked out my toddler in the middle of the night and sent my dogs into a craze.

    In addition to the stored water we have a few means of quick storage. We have this thing called a Water BOB. Basically it's a giant sterile bladder that you throw into a bathtub and you fill it with water. This way you don't have to necessarily have to worry about the cleanliness (or even chemicals recently used) on your bathtub to store water. We also have several 7 gallon water jugs that we could fill up in a hurry.

    Filtration wise: We have a katadyn (I think it's the $90 model, don't know much about it, honestly) as well as a filter you install in 5 gallon buckets, as well as some tablets. We also have bleach on hand and pool test strips (this is uber important if you are wanting to treat with bleach for cleaning or long term storage to make sure your chlorine content is not more than 3 or 4 PPM (DISCLAIMER: Do your own research on that, don't take my word for it).

    So in essence I've tried to cover all the bases that we might ever need. In the event that say we had a big hurricane coming through, or even a bad winter storm where we lost power I could fill up my various storage options and just use them the same way I use my tap water (into the brita pitcher, then into our cups). However, in the event like the folks in West Virginia are currently experiencing (Massive chemical leakage into their water reservoirs, they can only use their tap water for flushing toilets, and stores are out of bottled water), then we have more than enough pre-stored water that will last my family easily 2 weeks (of course I'm referring to drinkable water, not gray water). And then in the event that say for whatever reason we had to bug out and were running from the zombies out in the wilderness, we have means of treating/filtering the water on the go.

    Like I said, I live in the burbs so I don't have even a big enough yard to put a giant water reservoir (though a 55 gallon drum and a rain catch system when I get my gutters installed is definitely planned). However, through some planning I've been able to set my family up to last for weeks or even a couple of months given an hour's preparation time should the need arise without having my house be overwhelmed with preps. I think my in-laws have peaked in the closet before and seen stuff piled in there and chuckled (they probably think I am a bit paranoid). What I don't get is how people can be so naive to think that it can't happen to them. Look at Katrina, Sandy, West Virginia, and countless other instances in America where the life-sustaining water was only available via relief efforts (that often times dropped the ball) or the generosity of your neighbors (which you can't always rely on). Some folks might say we're crazy for taking all these measures, I say they are downright insane for not at least having a week's worth for their household on hand.

    Anyhow, sorry I was late to the party, but figured I'd throw my hat into the ring.
     

    Southpaw

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    ^^ Always great to read what others are doing in such detail. Thanks for that post.
    We are doing the same with the 2.5g containers as well. The water BOB has been on the list as well.
     

    ScorpionHunter

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    Aug 22, 2012
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    Scorpion - Have you coordinated with Driftwood VFD to be sure they can hook up to your fire water tanks? And have you considered your own firefighting equipment?
    Yes, there's a coupling on the 10,000 gallon tanks that will fit their hoses. Plus, they're uphill from the house so the pump won't have to do as much work.
     

    ScorpionHunter

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    Aug 22, 2012
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    Wow ScorpionHunter, that's the biggest water setup I've ever seen. Amazing!
    Thanks. It's a pretty simple set up and not that different from smaller systems. But one of the things I'm learning is that it is NOT indefinitely scalable. The 4" pipes coming off the collection roof can only take so much water. In the big storms we had last fall, the water was backing up a bit in the downspouts off the gutters. The 4" inch pipes connect to a single 6" pipe that connects to the tank itself, and even that was blasting water out so hard that it was splashing off the surface of the water in the tank. If I connected the roof on my house to the system, the efficiency would probably drop significantly.
     

    ScorpionHunter

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    Aug 22, 2012
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    I found this recently. Let me know what you all think. Water Storage Tank, 305 gal. - Tractor Supply Co.

    I think i can find a place around my house, garage or yard for it.

    That's a good size to start with. 4' x 4' isn't that large, but keep in mind that there's a lot of stuff that will be attached to that tank like pumps and filtration, first flush, etc. As for location, you'll need to route your collection pipes to it and you'll need electricity.
     

    breakingcontact

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    Oct 16, 2012
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    That's a good size to start with. 4' x 4' isn't that large, but keep in mind that there's a lot of stuff that will be attached to that tank like pumps and filtration, first flush, etc. As for location, you'll need to route your collection pipes to it and you'll need electricity.

    Appreciate the info. I was planning on just filling it up and closing it. I guess if i had to use it in emergency and wanted to refill i could setup a collection system to catch rain water.

    It seems very sturdy. I dont live on a lot of land so i dont have a lot of room. This container would take up a lot of space for me. Should it be kept out of direct sunlight? Garage too hot to keep it there?
     
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