Hugh,
NP’s post on water storage was excellent. I live in southeast Washington and have been working on the water storage issue for a while now. My water comes from two sources– city water and gravity-fed irrigation that comes out of the Columbia River. I’ve been toying with the idea of burying an underground water tank in my backyard and connecting my city water directly to the tank on one end and piping it to the house on the other. It would work much like a toilet tank; as I used my water, a valve would open and refill the tank, keeping the tank at a constant full. Because the tank would be underground, I would have to have a pump to pressurize the water going into the house, but it would solve the storage space problem. I think a guy would only be limited by the size of tank he wanted to bury.
I’m not sure of the legalities of something like this, or the feasibility, as I’m just in the thinking stages of this kind of storage idea now. However, this would serve as a two-fold solution for water storage and water treatment, because the water would be municipal, and it wouldn’t be just sitting in a tank unused. In the event that we had a grid down or a massive power outage, I would just shut the valve off at the meter to prevent back flow and pump it out either by hand or with a DC pump.
I brought up the fact that I also have gravity-fed irrigation. My thoughts on that are that although it’s very convenient and a seemingly endless source of water piped right to my backyard, it’s really gross water and disgusting; also, it only runs until the middle of October when they shut it down until spring.
I would like to hear from you and some readers on this topic. Is this something that can be done?
Also, a Big shout out to JWR and his interview with Ian Hawthorne. It was a great podcast and very informative, particularly on the subject of water. There was one particular part Jim said that really hit home. Even if nothing ever happens, at least he is living his life on his own terms, and he got to home school his kids, keep them safe, and raise them in a wholesome environment. Maybe that’s not verbatim, but who could ask for more then that? I think at the end of the day, that’s really what we all want.
God bless. L.O.