Didn't find anything  on this I hope it's not a dupe.  Anybody think about using the water in the basement sump pump pit as a source for potable water?  Obviously I'd get it tested to see if it's even close to potable, maybe run it through a purifier of some type. My sump pump runs year round, more in winter & spring.  Just tryin to get outside the box here.  Would definitely be a secure source in a hunkered down defensive posture.

My sumps have been bone dry for 3 or so years now.

Droughts suck.

The pump in ours turns on every 15 minutes minimum when the ground isn't frozen.

My septic tank is not all that far from the house, so even though the water is crystal clear there is no way it is getting used for anything other than flushing toilets without a good 20 minute rolling boil.  I can dip drinking water out of the well with a homemade dip tube easier and faster than that.

Lot of crap can easily seep into the sump. Toilet, yes. Potable, last resort and then it must be filtered/cleaned.

I agree it's certainly not a first choice but my house is on city water that I doubt will be reliable.  I have a well at the barn which is about 100yds away.  The house is about 20 yds uphill from the septic drain field.  Just lookin at a  possible SHTF source.

What about your water heater?

 

I'd use it after treating it.

Having a distilling setup might not be a bad idea in the OPs scenario.

+1, would be fine with the obvious qualifications.  I would use it as flush water first to stretch your more potable water as far as possible, then if necessary, would much rather have that than nothing.

Doc

Note quite sure why so many are down on the sump pit.  Would be filtered through lots of earth.  I see people thinking nothing of grabbing water from a stream and running it through a filter.  Around here, that stream would be full of AG chemicals and AG animal waste.  Sump would be my 2nd choice after the well.

That's something that makes me scratch my head too at times.  Some won't think twice either about running water gathered off their roof/rain gutters or a local stream/pond through a quality filter but won't use the water in the sump well.  I for one will have no problem using the water after I run it through a quality filter - Katadyn Combi, Sawyer mini or the half dozen ceramic candles (just a couple of my options).  Our sump well is part of our water plans, so much so I even have a 12v pump to pump it into storage barrels or to the outside to water the garden.  Putting in a well in our suburban home isn't a option since we'll have to go down at least 100ft.

Thinking outside of the box is always good.

I would tend to use it to stretch my potable water reserves. I've never seen a sump that wasn't full of bacterial slime. Maybe if you bleached it from time to time.

Since a sump is at a low point almost by definition, there also might be chemical runoff in the "water".

Just about my absolute last choice for drinking, no matter how much purification and filtering it gets.

Run it thru a sediment filter, carbon block filter, and then an RO membrane, after which thru a UVC 'sterilizer', and it will be the best water you ever drank.

All this can be done with careful shopping for abt $200.

Having the water resource in your basement is pretty nice!!!

I'd have it tested. At least that way, you'd know what's in it, and then you'd have a starting point.

I've fantasized about building a house around a good well.

Lots of good discussion, thanks guys!  i'm going to get it tested to see if its worth pursuing.

+1

I see nothing in this thread that removes chemicals from the water.  That includes chemicals from inside your home that have managed to get into the sump.  Right now I would not be surprised if diesel and permethrin were in one of mine.  Shit happens.  Right now my sump is running and there is a snow storm Outside.  I would melt snow before using the sump water.  Lots of beaver in the river so water needs to be purified from there also.

I know a well 100 yards away is not ideal but the water is a lot better.

You must have missed the carbon block filter and the RO membrane...  

Speaking of carbon block and RO, On a related note:

I started to install my new RO System last night. I intend to use our well water, through our water softener, through the filters/RO and then through a UV light. This membrane is good for 125 gallons a day if need be. I am only going to hook up the ice maker and a faucet by the kitchen sink to the output, though. Maybe I should take some pics of this.

WOW! The whole enchilada...

Here's how I rigged up a countertop RO system with an independent faucet on the sink, since with the new big faucet, the small RO 'slide valve' wouldn't screw onto it. Plus, it's a lot more convenient this way.

Last post...

RO

I don't know how the softened water will affect the RO membrane, maybe check to see if anything from the softening process gets added to the water.


Was at the doctors a while back and there was interesting old timer there who explained to me why calcium likes to build up on nickel plated shower faucets, etc.

Electrolysis!

He said the electrolytic action between the calcium and the nickel caused the Ca to precipitate out and deposit.

He was REAL smart, incl in the ways of this forum, and there may be something to this.

Going to try to take him to lunch one day....

The sump pit is a good place to get water for flushing the toilet and such, but if the electricity is off for very long and the sump pit is receiving significant water, it becomes a problem. In years past our sump pump has run frequently every day. Frequent enough that I would have to bail it out several times an hour if we had no electricity.

In times past when we lost electricity, the three things I needed the generator for were the refrigerator, the chest freezer, and the sump pump. Losing electricity usually coincides with getting significant rainfall, and the sump pit would be filling so fast that once I barely had time to get the generator running before the water was up to the top of the sump pit.

Our basement has no floor drains, so any water coming in is going to stay in until I remove it.

The last two years, the weather has been so dry that our sump pump comes on very seldom, but there have been years when it ran 11 months out of twelve. One year I devised a way to water both gardens with the water from the sump pit.

The bottom line is...if we had an extended power outage lasting more than a few weeks I would seal off the inlet to the sump pit and let the drainage tiles fill up, rather than run the generator 24 hours a day to tend the sump pit.

It would not be good for the foundation of the house, but it would be required.
I have fast setting mortar on hand just for that purpose. Stuff the inlet tile full of old sweaters or such and trowel a few inches of mortar in to block the opening.

I'd be careful with that.

Water and its hydrostatic pressure will find every place to leak into your basement, and fill it up anyhow.

Best to have a couple $90 HF gennys and address it as it runs in ---in an emergency.


Man, think of all the flooded basements in a long term SHTF...

I would totally use it for drinking after filtration.

I'm well aware of the consequences of taking such a drastic measure.
I wouldn't have any choice if it was a wet year and the power was off for too long.
...and yeah, half the houses in town would have flooded basements, which would eventually make them uninhabitable.
The lift stations would not continue functioning forever.
Eventually the city would throw in the towel and stop running the emergency generators for the lift stations for the storm sewers and the sanitary sewers.

I'm thinking of a scenario where the lights don't come back on for more than a month when I talk about the city throwing in the towel.

I would stop running my generators non-stop after a week or so.
An entire day was almost unbearable.

What is a basement??

It's the second story of a one story ranch style house.
Sometimes they are a nice, finished living space.
Sometimes they are a cave with spiders and mold and crystaline structures growing everywhere.

Mine is somewhere in the middle. It's clean and dry and stuffed full of things.
Things I need, and things I need to get rid of.

It came to me later, it might of been in a dream!  Still, since I live on some of the cleanest, most pristine water in Wisconsin, there is no need to start or even end with using the sump or should I say sumps.  No basement or stairs in our future, slab with radiant heat.  Only stairs will be to go up a tower to shoot from, for fun and sport or "other" as it arises.

Dump the sump!

Same situation here, no way I would use it for anything but flushing a toilet without some serious filtering and boiling. It's only 30 feet from my personal sewer.....