Category: Water Storage & Filters

James, Your advice is excellent; however, one of the best tools to have for checking [water] sanitation levels is a DPD [Diethyl-paraphenylene diamine reagent] test kit available from Taylor or Hach, to name a few. I do not recommend OTO [orthotolidine reagent] kits as they are not as accurate as DPD. A 5mg/L initial shock should take care of most contaminants. After you have treated any water with bleach, it should be tested for free chlorine residual after 30 minutes of contact time. Water with a free chlorine residual of 4 mg/L should not be ingested for long durations as …

Jim: I had to write you and correct something that could lead to health damage or even death from the use of chlorine [for water treatment]. People have to know that this use [of chlorine] is for treating water [shortly before use], not long term storage. If you have a water supply that you intend to drink/use within a month, then chlorine (as long as it’s pure – as you so instructed) is fine. But it is not for long term storage! When water is treated with chlorine, and then sealed in a container, the chlorine degrades over a short …

Mr. Rawles, I want to buy some pool chlorine crystals for long term storage. Holly Deyo’s book had a formula for purifying large amounts of water with this product, but how would I make a chlorine bleach substitute that could be used to purify smaller quantities of water or as laundry bleach? Is there an amount in grains or grams that could be used to make up, say, five gallons at a time? I know store bought laundry bleach like Clorox has a limited shelf life, so I wanted to be able to make [my own hypochlorite solution.] Thank you …

Jim: Good morning. The heightened awareness on SurvivalBlog surrounding sourcing pure drinking water, especially for the survival community, reminded me of information on this topic that I had wanted to send to your attention. There’s a bit of self-interest here, as the company is owned by my father-in-law, but the short story is that his entity is on the cutting edge of fresh water production from air. That’s right… he sells atmospheric water generators. Water Pure International is his company, it trades on the stock market under [the stock symbol] WPUR.OB (about $0.50 per share currently.) The machines are similar …

Mr R.: Your blogs’ post on Ca++ hypochlorite as a stable disinfectant stock for water treatment was golden advice. I had some liquid chlorine bleach stored. It actually eroded out through the bottom of the plastic container. It dripped down and ate through steel mess trays underneath. Eroded completely. I remembered that chlorine is an oxidizer, and will do damage – duh ! – to organic material … hence it’s value as an antibacterial/anti-parasitic treatment. Cleaning up the dried bleach was irritating to eyes and airways. Again – duh ! – as terrorists in Baghdad have made evident. Fortunately other …