How ya feeling?
Good I hope.
Now for a question. A while back, a post was made about water treatment for storage.
You told us how much iodine was needed to treat water. I can't remember how much or find the paper I printed out on it so could you tell me again?
A woman I know wants to store water and wants to know. She wants to use bleach but I told her to use iodine instead and I would let her know later on the amount. If in the event she doesn't want to use iodine (She's kind of hard headed), how much bleach do you use per gallon of water.

Thanks.

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I would probably not use iodine to treat water for [u]storage[/u].  Due to its nasty taste and if you are starting out with pure water (i.e. tap water) iodine is probably overkill.  I would use either McNett Corporations Aquamira [url]http://www.mcnett.com/Camping/index.html[/url] (which uses Chlorine Dioxide...the same stuff as municpal water treatment plants) and has no significant taste. If you want to use liquid chlorine bleach to disinfect water for long-term storage. One gallon can be treated by the addition of 1/4 teaspoon of liquid chlorine bleach containing 4 to 6 percent sodium hypochlorite. (Most bleaches contain 5.25 percent.) This is equivalent to 16 drops of liquid chlorine bleach.

To treat [u]suspect[/u] water I would boil it.  All you need to do is bring it to a rolling boil (to be super safe boil for at least 3 minutes), this will take care just about everything.  If you want to use chemicals I would suggest iodine (be aware that iodine is [b]not[/b] effective against cryptosporidium pathogens and needs about 20-30 minutes to work...longer in cold water).  

Personally if boiling is not practical I use a high quality filter rated to remove 99.9% of Cryptosporidium (note these filters are not usually effective against viruses...ususually not a concern in North America) and then finish with iodine (to get the viruses).

My uses for water treatment are NOT for storage, but rather wilderness excursions and survival techniques...

The others gave better advice for the long term!