I have 6ea 15 gallon drums and 1ea 30 gallon drum of water stored in blue HDPE food rated containers.  These are stored in my basement on a concrete slab or tile on a concrete slab.  
We also have 4-5 cases of 12oz water bottles.
For water filtering we own a Berkey 3 gallon system with black filters.  One Aquamira filter kit with pump and virus filter (150 gallons).  Two Sawyer mini's (100k gallon filtering each) and I Sawyer squeeze (1Million gallons filtering).

The stored water is for bug in although I can actually lift the 15 gallon drums if need be.  (2 adults and 2 small kids) The filters are for long term bug In or bug out to another location.  

How long would that last us and what other recommendations do you have for water supply?

I'm thinking about installing a few rain barrels to collect water in the future.

Can you dig a well?

If not, I would go rain catchment.

The old military absolute minimum was one gallon per person per day.  That's 100% for drinking.  Add in cooking the amount goes way up, add in bathing, add in clothes washing.  Nobody stores enough water.

I can't dig a well where I'm at.  

All the stored water a filtering is for drinking water.  I could probably use rain water collection for drinking water eventually.  Or one the stored water runs out.  The rainwater would be for washing initially though.  

Filtering and stored water are temp fixes obviously.  It would keep us alive long enough until we figured out a long term solution.

I am not sure how accurate it is but I have read not to store water containers directly on concrete as it may leach chemicals that your containers could absorb. The guidance given was to separate the containers from the floor with raw untreated wood. It may be unnecessary but it seemed like cheap insurance so I placed some 1x12 raw wood planks under my barrels.

since you live in hurricane territory, you might consider a couple of plastic trash cans as temporary rain catch containers... before the re-roof a couple of years ago, I just knocked out the end cap of the gutter, and let the storm rainwater fill a container... just in case... one can went directly into the shower/tub and was filled prior to the approaching storm to allow water for flushing, and still have access to the shower drain.... with a Sawyer .1micron 5gal kit, and Sawyer mini, and new bottle of Clorox each hurricane season, I don't perceive a lot of problem here... no agricultural or chemical runoff to speak of... shallow well on property with deep piston pump

STORE MORE WATER

 

easy way to do it is to gather old water heaters. plumb them in your system so water flows through all of them whenever you use water. always ready, fresh, and potable. make sure you install a one way valve at the beginning of the series. easily adds couple hundred gallons of zero maintenance water storage. only problem is if your city water is contaminated before you can isolate your system.

You really need a location wherein you can have a well or preferably multiple wells.

It rained here yesterday and the day before. It was the first true amount of rain we have had all year. I would have to be depending solely on rainwater.

Also, you have the NBC possibilities, rainwater isn't an option then.

Better filtration maybe.


http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_10_17/577038_UPDATED_w__pix___post__7____Portable_Rev_Osmosis.html

Water from the roof is dang useful for flushing the toilet.



There will be times you want some water that does not have to be perfectly clean for other stuff as well.  If the power is out just being able to keep cool or water the pets or whatever comes to mind.



And of course boiling and treating and filtering is also an option.



There are a few ways to learn how much water you use in a day.  Look at your meter and see how an average day goes.  Use your bill to do the same thing.  Write down what all you use water for and guess how much it takes, then go play with that average water bill.



Something to also look into is using your stuff.  Does your berkey seal up well?  Run some searches and you will see they had some issues with some filters not sealing that well.  Do you have the stuff needed to hook a sawyer up and use it the way you plan to use it?



Can you drain your water heater?  Ever done it?  Know how nasty some water heaters are when you crack that valve?



How well does your toilet flush from poured water?  I could flush it by using a bucket poured directly into the bowl and use less water than filling up the toilet tank and using the flush handle.



Some new toilets are strange.



While you may not plan to do true laundery you might want to rinse some clothes out, got a place to hang them to dry?



Anyone getting sick can go through a ton of water.



Store more, make sure you can access what you have, and also figure out your backup sources of water if you need to resupply your water.  Going to want mutliple backups probably.

Well done! You have more water on hand than 99.9% of the population (maybe more).

If you are looking to improve your filter system (which is pretty darn good) look into reverse osmosis (with activated carbon filters) as that is about the only thing thing that can fix water contaminated with disolved substances (depending on the substance). Next step might be to look into some method of resupply (rain catchment and/or private well). If you wanted to go all out an underground cistern would be awesome (but expensive).

You need one of these. It will take up a lot less room than your other barrels and it holds 250 gallons of water.

Tag.  You are in a similar situation to myself and I have similar preps for water.  Main difference is we have lifestraw family as our bug in filters and store the bulk of our water in 55 gallon drums.

Someone tell me more about chemicals leaching into water stored in HDPE barrels.  My barrels are stored on a heavy duty wooden stand I built  out of 4x4 wood posts and a commercial wood door.  Can those treatment chemicals get through to the water?

I would suggest these also. In my area I can get used good grade ones in 275-330 gallon size for about $100.00

Store in the shady spot of your yard and at least you have a large source.

This reverse osmosis filtration sounds interesting. One of my concerns is surface water around here that has been contaminated by fertilizer runoff. We have lifestraws, lifestraw family and Sawyer filters. I don't think any will remove chemical contamination.

pretty sure you need activated carbon to remove chemical contaminants.

 

I'm also interested in better understanding why not to store HDPE on a concrete slab.  Radon maybe?  Would it matter if the floor is carpeted or tiled?

Yeah, I would get one of the totes for capacity but I like the redundancy of having multiple containers.  In case something got contaminated.  Also like that I can move a 30 gallon and 15 gallon drum.  Still I may get one of the totes to catch rain water.  Stack two on top of each other and I'd have a nice cistern.  

How long are the white plastic totes good for?  I heard the white doesn't last as long out in the sun as the blue will.  Not sure that would matter in a basement.

Well, remember that plastic is permeable. It isn't truly sealed like metal containers.

 

Here was the original article I remembered reading link



Since I lived in Texas and my water barrels are in the garage I went ahead and placed some raw 1x12 underneath them for cheap insurance

ETA - The folks over at Emergency Essentials say basically the same thing link

Anyone know where to get these new?

There are plenty on craigslist that are used food grade ones.  Not sure about new though.

The white or clear ones tend to grow alge if left in a warm area with light. My neighbor uses one to top off his holding tank when the well isn't keeping up.

We elected for a 2500 gallon black plastic holding tank. Our well only generates about 300 - 500 gallons a day. So the tank acts as a water bank to maintain our reserves. Honestly, wish we had gone with the 5000 gallon model. We have an extensive garden which is water intensive even on drip systems.

One thing I have done is to hop on google earth and find all the streams and rivers in my area for backup water. I am in the process of buying a house with a creek running through it and a river around 500 yards off. Emergency Essentials also make some nice water containers that stack, I think each one holds like 160 gallons, I have been thinking about getting a few of them.

I wouldn't mind an IM as to your source if its in the northern half of GA.

I got mine from a buddy. Its a new food grade container with a used cage (cage is like new though) for $200 delivered. You can get them new here but they are super expensive.

I wouldn't use the white ones outside. I keep mine in the corner of my garage. I plan to fill it with tap water every 2 yrs.

Yep, this is the way to go. We got ours on CL for 80 a piece.

J-

It's probably not the best of ideas, but my wife has been washing and then filling 2 liter bottles with water and storing them in a refrigerator on the back porch. Better than nothing I suppose.

That's a fine idea.

Be sure to have some sort of carbon bock filter to remove the plastic leaching's if the water is stored a long time.

Very easy to do and everyone should have this basic capability.

I would add several boxes of pool shock,  with 70%+ calcium hypochlorite. shelf stable bleach for a long time....

Plastic sheeting for draping and impromptu rain catchment systems.

Several water pumps, be they sump pumps and or bilge pumps for moving water. It would be damn nice to move water to the second floor and get ya some water pressure.... of course that gets you into having electricity to run the pumps. Then you've got the option of solar, charge controllers, batteries, inverters yada yada...... but then again, you'd have electric when others might not....that's awesome.

Then maybe a old school pitcher pump or two and a drill/auger to get you down 20+ feet to create your own well......

maybe you want to take a hot shower so one of those triton hot water heaters - propane powered hot water heater, all you need is some propane and a little water pressure. makes doing dishes nice and being clean lends itself well to enjoying date nights, gonna need something for entertainment enjoyment.......


a few ideas.

Even if you were born in twenty or so years, the "chemicals" in concrete, water, aggregate and cement, will not leach "into" your drum in your lifetime.  More likely, you'd have biological growth.

Really worried about it, buy high grade stainless steel drums.  They have issues of their own, but nothing is every going to go "thru", might come from, the stainless.

Tagged for later reading.