I too have a similar set-up for my long term water supply. I have two 55 gal plastic water barrels that collect roof water via my gutters. I use these 9 months of the year to water the garden.
For prepping purposes, I can also attach a hose, and the overflow from these two barrels, would go into a hose which goes through a basement window to two more identical barrels, which are propped up on block with bottom spigots. A moderate rain could fill all four barrlel in 40 minutes. That's 200 gallons of water.

I would use it straight away for toilet uses, solar showers, watering plants/gardens, laundering clothes, etc.

For potable use, I would boil for consumption, or if fuel is getting low, use bleach or filtration system - as needed. I would not pre-filtrate or treat as that seems perhaps wasteful if water is not used. I only plan to treat the water my family consumes.

I also have copious amount of bottled water, but I like the sustaining use of this rain barrel method. Quick note: I painted my outside barrels to reflect sunlight, as the sun will promote algae inside the barreled water.

 

Thousands of farmers in Australia drink straight rain water, no filtration, and we arent dead yet.

Maybe US bird poop is more toxic than the Aussie birds though, wouldn't know...

 

personally I think people are being scared when it comes to rain water, indoctrination about safety 'n such

 

My plan is to gather rain water from my barn (metal roof) and my house (shingles) then treating it with calcium hypochlorite (aka: Pool Shock) and then running it through my Berkey.

Same thing when I get water from the creek and sump pump well

 

Collect it, Run it through the Big Berkey and Relax. I have seen Medical Teams in Africa, pouring some God-Awful brown and green tinted crap they called water into a Berkey and drink what later came out like Spring Water. Get the best (black) filters and a spare set for spares. It will clear the chemicals, the poop, whatever. A good water filter is a must. I urge Everyone to get one. I now have 2 Berkeys and wouldn't be without one. In fact, that is the same thing I'm planning to do as a water back up. I have a well with a manual crank pump, but, I will either bath and wash in the rainwater, and drink it if it goes through the Berkey.

 

Spa water

Do you think the water in my spa which is chemically treated with
Brominating granules (a sanitizer) and baking soda would be safe to drink after running it through a Katydn water filter?

This would be a last choice for drinking water but an option if it's safe. I guess otherwise the spa water could be used for other purposes.

 

I do know someone who is relying on his swimming pool for drinking water, by running it through a Berkey. He's already tested it for purity at his job. I drank some of it. Tasted fine to me.

 

When younger I lived in ND, had nasty, sulfer well water..slimy as all get out....we collected water in galvanized cans, stored it in milk jugs, etc. in grandmas basement, drank it, no issues....

I am bald now as a result....

 

Thanks to everyone for you replies. I am definitely already stocking up on the black berkey filters. Stock up as many as I can now since they will last indefinitely. Yeah, you just start reading other message boards and begin feeling overly cautious.

 

Home Depot offers free water testing. Just go to the plumbing Isle and grab a few kits.

They will try and sell you something, but it's free.

 

The micron rating on the filter determines what chemicals, minerals, bacteria, and virii it removes, so look at your Berkey filter (get the black one) and that'll help you make up your mind. I collect rainwater off of only one spout right now, but it'll fill up 45gal in an hour in a normal rain here. I played around with a biosandfilter, since I'm familiar with their use in the 3rd world - I've seen water contaminated with sewage ran through a BSF come out clear and verifiably clean. Lots of those being set up in Haiti, Japan, and elsewhere, although I don't think there's much you can do for radiological contamination.

Personally, I don't want to mess with a multi-stage process - pre-filter, filter, boiling, treating, charcoal to taste. The solution I've settled on is the Sawyer .02 micron Purifier hooked up to a 5 gal bucket.

 

The micron rating on the filter determines what chemicals, minerals, bacteria, and virii it removes, so look at your Berkey filter (get the black one) and that'll help you make up your mind.

The micron rating is not going to be good enough to catch chemicals and minerals. They are way too small. To catch them you need to use means other than simple filtration. Now if instead of minerals you meant silt, then yeah, that is possible.

Let me go further with some examples. Quartz, one of the most common minerals is about 6 angstroms. Converted to microns, that's 0.0006 microns. Xylene, a major ingredient in gasoline, is under 5 angstroms, which as you may have already guessed is 0.0005 microns.

Now it's interesting that a Berkey filter is recommended in this discussion when they won't even publish a micron rating for their filters. In a theoretical discussion about the pore size, the smallest pore size mentioned is 0.02 microns which happens to be the same as that Sawyer filter that has been mentioned. Let's use a number half that width: 0.01 microns. At a pore size that big, 16 quartz molecules could fit through side by side with room to spare. Xylene can line up 20 of its molecules side by side and still fit through with room to spare.

The point is that these types of filters used in hand pumps or gravity filtration systems can only filter solids. Liquid chemicals and dissolved minerals are too small to stop with the micron sizes in these filters.

 

I ran across this and thought it might be helpful, good luck!

http://www.oas.org/dsd/publications/Unit/oea59e/ch10.htm

D

 

Thanks for the article. it was very informative. although it has me once again questioning the use of typical shingle roofs to catch rainwater due to the chemicals used. ughh..

 

Berky suggests that you use bleach on questionable water, then run it through the filters. That combo should clear out most everything. Its even better if your using the berky black filters.

Since the berky black are like $100 for 2, I've been getting the older White ceramic types on line, for $55 for 2. At 3000 gallons per filter, thats a ton of savings

 

My specialty is Reverse Osmosis Water Purification (ROWP) that produces 99.98% pure water. The problem with this water is there are no minerals or electrolytes and when you drink it you will become dehydrated vary fast. The earth has its own ROWP unit called the rain cycle. you will need to filter the water through a charcoal filter (anthracite is best) then you will need some kind of electrolyte additive. Preferably one with no sugar or any claim to give you "energy". When it comes to long term storage you will want to chlorinate the water. You would want about 5 PPM which would be about 275mm/55gal drum. Do not drink this right away in less you need a laxative. Stored in a dark cool place is should last you 5 years or more.

 

Water Treatment

GSE (Grapefruit seed extract) Replaces Chlorine as Wastewater Treatment. It can also be used as a natural antibiotic as well as kill anything in your drinking water. This natural substance is massively overlooked and I believe it should be on the top of every preppers supply list.