Water

Peak water is well and truly with us. It won't be ignored. It, peak oil and peak phosphorus, will be the drivers of food inflation. Water and fire are linked.

I will divide this article into personal and regional requirements. Without a thorough understanding of the regional situation it will be difficult to know what the personal requirements will be. However, water is basic to survival, so providing personal sources is fundamental to be prepared.

Regional

Without access to substantial amounts of water you will not be able to produce food. That has implications for where you live. It affects the infrastructure around you.

It doesn't matter where you look aquifers are getting drained. This is going to be one of those problems that is just going to surface one day, and not go away. The problem is huge in the South Western US. 

Monthly measurements in the change in water mass from December 2004 to November 2013 revealed the basin lost nearly 53 million acre feet (65 cubic kilometers) of freshwater. That's almost double the volume of the nation's largest reservoir, Nevada's Lake Mead. More than three-quarters of the total -- about 41 million acre feet (50 cubic kilometers) -- was from groundwater.

"We don't know exactly how much groundwater we have left, so we don't know when we're going to run out," said Stephanie Castle, a water resources specialist at the University of California, Irvine, and the study's lead author. "This is a lot of water to lose. We thought that the picture could be pretty bad, but this was shocking."

They don't know how much water is left. With the current drought resulting from a blocking pattern driven by the shredding of the polar vortex (below from here). This drought may change, but more likely, it may not. The hope was for an El Nino event to drive in moisture from the Pacific, that possibility is now fading. So the politicians and the bureaucrats continue to talk, and business continues as usual.


Imagine, just for a moment, the impact that would result if the well was to run dry.
Another problem is that as you drain an aquifer there is more residual arsenic in the water that is left.

This isn't just a US problem. Turkey, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and China. This shot is from Iran;



Droughts are intensifying all over the world, while the intensity of floods is also going up. Lake Chad;


There is another general consideration when considering a location that derives its water from the ground. If that water becomes contaminated from a local reactor then it would finish the community. In my view ground and water table pollution is the predominate long term risk in considering nuclear pollution.

Lakes

Town water that is reliant on lakes runs a risk of contamination as has recently occurred in Ohio. Give preference to a city that receives its water from run-off into dams, and still have personal water tanks to carry you through droughts or contaminations. 

Personal

You do need an emergency stash of water for short periods. But I would not assume that an emergency stash is going to be sufficient.

It’s recommended that you have 1/2 gallon of drinking water per day. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, recommends that you have 1 gallon of water per person per day for drinking AND hygiene. That means if you want to prepare for a month for a family of four, you’d need about 120 gallons (455 litres) of water.

Water tanks

A water tank on your house is essential. Why have tanks? 

• Personal water security is a must. 
• If you want to grow food well, don't use municipal water. The chlorine depletes the soil ecosystem. The plants simply do not grow as well. 
• Thermal events are coming, without a water supply you will be reliant on electricity being available for survival.
• Don't rely on council water to fight a fire. Everyone else will, and the water pressure will drop to nothing.

It is also an obvious help to the ongoing water crisis in cities around the world. The rain cycles are becoming extreme, every drop must be captured. Every rooftop has run off, unfortunately it can be polluted and that needs to be dealt with.

Contamination

• Heavy materials in rainwater settle on the bottom of the tank and form a thick layer of sludge.
• Rainwater generally contains few chemicals. However, airborne contaminants in major urban and industrial centres may increase pollution.
• Micro-organisms from the roof or gutters can build up in the sludge layer.
• Most micro-organisms are harmless and do not pose a health risk. However, some organisms commonly found in rainwater tanks can cause stomach aches, diarrhoea and similar ailments and can be quite dangerous for the very young and the very old.
• Amoebae may also be found in rainwater which may cause amoebic meningitis if water is forced up the nose.

Contrary to common concern over contamination from air pollution in the city, it was the rooftop sources that were generally responsible for high lead readings in rainwater tanks, with some contribution from plumbing and atmospheric sources, Robert says.(link)

Plumbing sources are predominantly leaded solder or brass fittings. They are more important for rainwater than treated water because rainwater is soft and naturally slightly acidic. As such it is corrosive and it will leach metals out of the plumbing system materials.

However, the most significant source of a high lead concentration in urban rainwater tanks was identified as lead flashing or leaded paint.

If you have a significant amount of lead flashing on your roof and it’s supplying the tank then your tank is probably going to have lead levels above the drinking water guidelines 

If you can’t remove the lead flashing the next best thing is to seal it over with a lead free paint or polymer membrane. Stop the contact with rainfall and the atmosphere and you will stop the main source contaminating the tank.

If you have high lead paint it’s a little trickier. Painting over it is a partial solution but over time it will degrade and expose the lead paint, so removing it or stripping it back is really the best option.

Most of the lead entering a rainwater tank settles to the bottom with the sludge, for which Robert has an innovative solution.

If you can raise the outlet 500mm from the base you tend to avoid most of the sludge. A ‘floating’ outlet that consists of a flexible tube sitting inside the tank so that the draw off point is about 10-20cm below the surface of the water, which obviously rises and falls depending on the level of the tank, is an even better option.

Additionally, adding lime to the tank to modify its ph level may help, but this has not yet been tested in the field.

The evidence comes from concrete water tanks. If you can get the ph level above seven the lead will precipitate out and end up in the sludge. As long as you have a draw off point that is avoiding the sludge entering the water at the outlet it should solve the problem. 

Clean capture

• Roof catchments should be kept clean and clear of leaves. Overhanging branches of trees and shrubs should be removed.
• Cover the inlet and turn the down pipe to one side so the water from the first good rain rinses down the roof (especially if newly clad) and gutters then runs to waste.
• The inlet and overflow of the tank should be screened with a mesh to prevent birds, animals and insects from gaining access to the water.
• A well maintained leaf trap will reduce the amount of organic matter that enters the rainwater tank through the inlet.
• The tank should be covered to prevent light from reaching the water as it will encourage the growth of bacteria. The cover should have a tightly sealed manhole, to allow access to the tank for cleaning and inspection purposes.
• ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH GUIDEUse only "food grade" plastic pipe and fittings if you intend to drink the water as some pipes are manufactured with low levels of lead.

Insulation

Tanks are an obvious solution. What is not so obvious is that they should be insulated. One way to do that is to bury it. The other approach is to shade it.
The other issue is that you need the tank to last. Here is a good summary of the various tank types.

Purification

It is not enough to have a water supply it must be drinkable. Here is a good overview of the various purification techniques. However, I was surprised that UV sterilization was not mentioned as it requires no chemicals. It has a couple drawbacks, the water must be clear and the sterilization does not last. But it is cheap and easy to implement on a long term basis. There are online circuit designs that use flashes or arcs to sterilize water. These might be applicable in situations where UV is low, overall though, the sun does a fine job and no electronics or power is required.

Links

This is simply a great site. Lots of good information.