Posted: 11/7/2007 5:39:16 PM EDT
|
Been reading about the water troubles plaguing much of the southeast. I got to thinking about it. My wife really wants to get an above ground swimming pool for our new place. Of course, she wants it to play in but I got to thinking that it might be good to have several thousand gallons of extra water. Where I live, water is not a problem. We don't have a shortage of water for the forseeable future. However, a pool would be a nice play toy and a possible emergency source of water for flushing toilets and bathing. So what say you all? Good idea or not? |
|
A couple years ago we had an issue in our home which amounted to about a week with no running water. We have an aboveground pool, and we used it for flushing toilets. We ate off paper plates to minimize dishwashing. We had plenty of potable water for cooking and drinking. Bathing was the toughest challenge. We could have heated water and taken sponge baths but that was too much trouble. I ended up taking a shower at the gym at work every morning, and the wife went to her sister's house every couple days. If we'd had a solar shower, we could have at least filled it with heated water and done it that way, but outside of a sponge bath it just wasn't practical. |
Live in N.C and have a aboveground pool. I do plan it as a back up source for water, mainly for washing and tolits, but also as alast ditch drinking source after filtering thru a big berkley filter. Not get for the boby but better than death  Found out the short fall to this plan this year. Normal we get enough rain to keep the pool full with a little topping off from the hose. Not this year. It has gotten so low that the pump can't run and we can't fill the pool from the hose. I hope to put gutters on the house this year and divert the water to the pool. This way any little rain we get I can keep. |
|
It is up to you and how you maintain your pool. I have a 15,000 gallon in ground pool and it only has chlorine in the form of liquid or tablets added to oxidize any organic material (oils, algea, bacteria etc) as well as acid to maintain the PH level. The water is filtered better than when it came from the tap by a DE filter. If you start adding other chimicals to the water you can make it not so good to drink. The way mine is maintained, it is a very viable backup source. |
|
In rural areas a pond wouldn't attract much attention provided you have plenty of pre-filtering available. You can even stock them with fish. Ponds are popular in my neck of the woods, but thats because all the homes use water wells which have insufficient flow rates for firefighting equipment. |
| I got to thinking about this last night. We have had the pool for 6 years and I swim a lot. So, I have already drank a lot of the water! I am a type 2 diabetic so I get bloodwork every year. Nothing new has shown up. But like another post, I keep the chems. to a min. Pool is in open area that get very few leaves or trash in it, so it that very little chems to keep it good. |
|
Strong Recommendation: GET THE POOL, but... ONLY sanitize it with either liquid bleach (6% Ultra generic=sodium hypochlorite, the same stuff you sanitize drinking water with) OR a salt-water generator. The salt-water generator uses salt, like water softener salt, and generates chlorine as required. The only 2 other chemicals you need are "Sanitizer", which prevents the chlorine from being burned off by the sun too fast, and Muratic Acid, used to keep the PH level from creeping up. That's it! See the information @Trouble Free Pools www.troublefreepool.com/index.php It is also a great source of water for fighting fires. We live in a rural area and have well water so the water pressure is too low: They'll pump from the pool to fight a fire. Every gallon will help. |