Water in this county
Wells, cisterns, rain, Laughery Creek, and how not to drink a hospital visit.
Sources, best to worst
| Source | Treat? |
|---|---|
| Drilled well, sealed cap, bleach-shocked if opened | Test if you can; boil if anyone is sick |
| Hot-water heater / sealed cistern | Usually drinkable |
| Rain off a clean metal roof into a rinsed barrel | Boil or bleach for drinking |
| Spring you can watch come out of rock | Boil anyway |
| Laughery Creek, clear riffle | Settle, filter, boil |
| Pond / ditch / floodwater | Last resort, then boil hard |
| Ohio River | Last of last. Chemical load you cannot boil out. |
Make it drinkable
Bleach that is scented, splash-less, or older than a year is the wrong bottle. And bleach does nothing to some farm chemicals. Boiling plus a clean source beats chemistry you don’t have.
- 1.Let silt settle. Pour off the clear.
- 2.Filter through a cloth, then sand/charcoal if you built a drum filter.
- 3.Rolling boil 1 minute. At our elevation that is enough.
- 4.Or bleach: 2 drops unscented 5–6% bleach per quart of clear water (8 drops per gallon). Double if cloudy. Wait 30 minutes. It should smell faintly of chlorine. If not, add a little more and wait again.
How much
A gallon per person per day is the planning number — drinking and a little cooking. Double it in July or if you are nursing or doing heavy wood work. Livestock is on top of that. Catch rain like you mean it: one inch of rain on a 1,000 sq ft roof is ~600 gallons.