Good find, TWP. A good overview.
I especially liked the first item of the list of requirements. That is: A roof. lol
I thought it was humorous, but it (or a substitute) definitely is required.
I think I have an article already written somewhere, but I am sure it is pretty old, so I will just write up what I am thinking now, and add it to the old article and redo it when I get a chance. These are mostly just some options and alternatives. As the author of the piece alluded, it is not rocket science. Nor is it brain surgery, though you might have to do a bit of digging around in your brain to implement some of the ideas in the article and in my list, which follows:
Part A - Considering water sources:
1) Rain. Usually water. Hopefully always water. But not an absolute guarantee. That subject is addressed below. (I almost did not list this, as it is kind of self-evident, I believe. But since I was adding the others, I decided to go ahead and put it at the top of the list. I cite the ‘roof’ precedent in the article.)
2) Snow. Snow might not be a factor in many areas. In others, it could very well be the primary source of precipitation supplied water. Not too many differences in handling snow, as to rain, but there are some.
3) Flowing surface water. This is a tricky one. Here in Nevada, as well as many other western states, plus even places in the mid-west, east, and south, drawing water from any source of water already on or in the ground, is extremely restricted. It is one thing to dip up a bottle to run through a purifier, it is quite another to drop in a collection strainer on the end of a pipe and start pumping water out or free-flowing it to somewhere else.
For those reasons, plus the fact that it really is a different subject anyway, I will not get into drawing water from a flowing surface water source. What I will get into, as ‘flowing surface water’ source of collection, is when there is more water flowing than the channel can actually hold. Usually called a flood. There can be several causes. Simply too much rain or snow-melt too fast for the channel to carry it all away safe. A blockage of some type downstream, such as a land slide, large vehicle in the channel, ice or debris build up.
It does not matter very much what the cause is, unless someone or something is in immediate danger of injury, death, or loss. What does matter is that this water overflowing the banks of the water course can be, if plans are in place, captured and held for use later. If the preparations and the subsequent use of the plans is not too obvious, then there should not be too much risk of getting into trouble. Of course, this only applies where there is flowing water, and there is a chance that it might flood.
4) Off-property sourced water. There are quite a few places where on-property sourced water supplies are limited, for a variety of reasons. There are those that must have water brought in to be stored on-property, either by themselves, or by a water delivery service that are usually active in those types of areas. If you are already in this position, then it is simply part of your life. If not, off-property water sources might play a part in your overall water harvesting plans.
5) Non-precipitation atmospheric water. Rain and snow, ice as sleet and hail, and a couple of other forms of water that comes out of the atmosphere are, of course, well known for the most part. There are a couple more, closely related collection and storage systems to acquire and accumulate the moisture in our atmosphere. Aerial Wells to the ancients, Air Wells, Dew Ponds, and Fog Fences are some of the terms and processes used to extract moisture from the air. Modern electromechanical, mechanical, solar, and other systems are being used to do this in a higher technology way. Using low tech processes to collect both natural condensation water and pulling water directly from the air can be used for prepper water collection and storage.
Part B - Collecting the water:
1) Precipitation collection. Rain and snow primarily. Simple runoff collection from roofs being the most common. But roofs are not the only places from which water can be collected. Pretty much any large hard surfaced area can be used fairly easily, especially in precipitation collection is built into the design of the structure for whatever its primary use is to be.
I would keep large quantities of sheep plastic on hand. It does not all have to be super heavy duty, but having at least some very heavy, as well as heavy duty, along with medium duty plastic sheeting can be used to make almost any area a precipitation collection area. Simply lay out the plastic in an area where you can direct the collection to no more than three or four locations, stake or weight down as necessary, and put a collection container at the low points. How much area is covered will determine how you need to handle the water being collected this way.
The main problems with fixed area collection are contaminates deposited on the surfaces, though some types of surfaces have inherent contamination problems. Asphalt in some shingles, some chemicals in concretes, and the like. But bird droppings, wind deposited substances, chemicals from vehicles in many instances, and all manner of nasties can be on the surfaces of the collection areas.
2) Flood/excess water collection. Collecting the water from floods and other overflow waters is not exceedingly difficult, but will often require some sturdy collection apparatus. If the water is flowing rapidly, there is a very large amount of it, or it tends to suddenly impact the apparatus, the design must incorporate means to deal with these factors. Again, not exceeding difficult. It is simply that it must be done.
If possible, directing the water away from the source, through or over a barrier, to a lower point is important so the water cannot simply run back into the source as the cause of the flood dissipates or is removed. Less like to be official problems if there is no ‘natural’ way for the water to go back into the ecosystem on its own.
Unless unusually small amounts of water are involved, then large storage areas and high capacity filtration will be needed.
3) Outside water source collection. It may or may not be a problem for vehicles carrying water to get to your water storage inlets. If it is likely, then provisions must be made so the vehicles can get to them without miring down, getting seriously stuck, lose their load, or simply not be able to make it in abnormal conditions.
So solid access routes have to be maintained, or means to transfer the water from the original delivery vehicle to the storage by lighter vehicles, piping, or other alternative methods must be ready to be used. Opsec can impose restrictions on how outside water deliveries are handled, as well. If one is doing the transport, there are many more options. From small scale to very large scale deliveries to permanent or temporary holding storage.
4) Atmospheric water collection can vary from hardly recognizable as such to huge, easily visible structures. Operational Security, maintenance, expense of installation, and several other factors will be some of the determining factors in which system or systems to use, and to what scale.
Part C – Transporting water from collection to storage:
1) Internal. Some systems will have at least some internal storage that must be transferred at some point. Other systems may include large storage systems as part of the collection system, so will not need transport from collection to storage.
2) Direct deposit. Where the collection system’s outlet is directly into the storage area. Usually very simple.
3) Piping. The most used system. Often the lighter schedules of PVC pipe, but with many other pipe solutions available commercially or as DIY projects. Avoid needing to pump the water if at all possible. Gravity flow is pretty cheap.
4) Troughs. From simple half pipe open troughs, to inground concrete troughs, old style sluice box troughs, and just about every other imaginable open top movement system. Some with covers, but detachable for access.
Part D - Storing the water:
1) Surface ponds. Sometimes easy, sometimes not. Open ponds, unless continuously refilled, become open mud pits, or dry up completely. Even well sealed ponds will lose water to evaporation.
2) Surface mount tanks. They can be of almost any material that will not contaminate the water, of any size a person wants to pay for. Even tanks made from materials that might contaminate the water be used with water friendly liners. Even potable water safe liners. Mild steel, corrugated galvanized steel, stainless steel, concrete block, poured concrete, wood, fiberglass, and a wide range of polymers/plastics.
They do all have some common aspects. Unless very small, the bottoms will need very good support. Both stout, and smooth so as not to puncture the tank from the weight of the water when full. They must also be stout in their general construction. Water mass does not just push downward. It pushes outward as well. So the walls of the tank must be stout enough to contain the water, too.
Exposure to the weather can be a major factor, in both what nature does to the tank material, and the effects of temperature, both high and low. Obviously in cold areas a surface tank could be subject to freezing. There are ways to deal with this. But if they fail, and the tank itself is not constructed of materials and in a manner to avoid freeze expansion failure, then you will have major problems.
Some materials simply do not do well exposed to direct sunlight, some to heat, some to cold, some to a combination. Do the research to find the appropriate material for the given installation and use the appropriate one as required.
It is almost always better to have surface mount tanks covered. But it is not always necessary.
3) Subsurface mount tanks/cisterns. Most of the same things apply to subsurface or underground tanks as they do to surface mount. The earth does provide some support of the sides of the tank when the tank is full. But that same support when the tank is empty becomes a danger that can collapse the tank. And some soils are compatible with some tank materials and some are not with others. It comes down to doing the research and making sure tank/cistern material choice is appropriate.
Oftentimes underground tanks have even more size limitations than surface tanks. There can be other things in the ground that preclude a tank above a certain size. Material choice can limit size, as well.
One of the advantages of underground tankage is that it is out of sight, once installed. But the process of installing underground tanks can be highly visible. Make sure opsec is included in the decision making process.
4) Some alternatives. There are a few alternatives to the standard open storage and enclosed storage methods most often used. One is the use of various designs of a commercial product developed to allow extremely large capacity storage of water from precipitation run-off for locations with very large collection areas, such as parking lots, large building complexes, flood control systems, and the like.
Because it can be very difficult to build large underground tanks with the capacity required and not restrict use of the surface of the ground, methods were developed to allow even high ground weight uses above the storage area. These are basically manufactured units, primarily polymers, that are stacked inside of properly lined large excavations, the lining brought over the top, and earth placed over the assembly.
Because the stacked units have high load bearing capability, yet are 90% and more open area inside, a huge tank can be constructed, and the surface still be used for parking even of heavy vehicles, recreation, and many other activities without danger of the tank collapsing. For preppers, this means that huge water storage areas can be created, yet the entire surface area above them can be used for most other prepper activities.
Another alternative is primarily a temporary storage solution, though if done with longer storage times in mind, can be designed and installed to hold water for months, if not years.
It is a DIY project that can range in scale from a few gallons of storage, to thousand or even tens and hundreds of thousand of gallons of storage. It can be constructed with hand tools, light powered gardening tools, or all the way up to large earthmoving equipment to construct extremely large storage areas.
And I use the term storage area intentionally. What started as an idea to store a few weeks of water for an anticipated emergency, using expedient methods and materials, evolved into the method described in the paragraph above.
Using a shovel (and hopefully NOT a pick), a person digs a simple open trench from one foot to up to three or even four feet wide, making it as long as they can. The only catch is that the trench must follow the contour of the ground. Just like the lines on a topographical map, the top of the trench must be at the same level the entire length. Because, you know, water tends to run downhill. And if the trench is not level, any water that goes into it is simply going to run out if any point of the top of the trench is lower than any other point.
A bit of variation really does not matter too much, as you will not be filling this trench all the way up to the top, anyway.
A major force multiplier in digging the trenches, even in fairly soft ground, is a garden rototiller. And it might be the difference between being able to store a few gallons of water for an emergency, to several weeks or months of it if you have less than ideal ground for digging.
Note that some ground may require sloping the sides of the trench to some degree to avoid the sides sloughing off.
You have to balance the length, width, and depth of the trench with what you have to line it. If you happen to have hard clay ground you might not even need a liner. But you probably will, anyway. Depending on what you have to line the trench with, the dimensions of the trench have to be set so the liner can be put in the trench and lie flat on the bottom, come up both sides of the trench, and then fold over with a good lap, the width at the top of the trench.
The length of the each section of trench is determined by how long the liner material is, to still allow each end to come up to the surface and fold over for a foot or two. Ideally, the liner would be a roll of heavy plastic sheeting suitable for potable water, and just the right width to fit whatever size trench is most effective for your location, and long enough to take full advantage of a long continuous trench. That probably will not be the case. So, use whatever you have or can get your hands on at short notice if you are not going to store the materials, or not install them immediately.
The other primary determining factor is what you have to cover over the trench to protect the liner and the water. Push comes to shove, you fill the trench with water, and simply leave it open. But it is much better to have something solid over the trench, that you can then mound over with some of the dirt removed when digging the trench.
Boards, plywood or other wooden sheet good, corrugated sheet metal, basically anything you have that will protect the top of the trench. Even doors from the house, if you do not need them still in place.
Now, the original idea was to construct this water storage trench, and then fill it from the regular water supply before something happened and the water went off. However, the idea has now become such that constructing these water storage trenches, especially with some improvements possible with pre-planning, they can be installed as semi-permanent or even fairly long-term water storage units.
The trench storage system also works very well if you have some sloped ground that can be covered with sheet plastic from time to time when expecting some precipitation to collect and direct that precipitation into the trenches from the sheet plastic laid out on the ground.
Part E – Water treatment:
1) Filtration. Can be done at any transfer point in the process. It is a good idea to actually do it at several points. But the main one is right after the point of collection. Take out everything possible while still allowing full flow collection so you get every drop you can. These can be large gravel/sand/straw filters to commercial units. Be able to bypass the filter to avoid initial collection simply to get rid of the build up of contaminates before running the rest through the filter.
Each subsequent stage of water transfer can often be run through another stage of filtration to get smaller stuff out. These filtration stages are primarily particulate filtration.
2) Purification. The final stage of treating any water for human consumption is a final filtration process to get out everything that the particulate filter stages did not get, such as VOCs, tastes, odors, heavy metals, and so on. And then that product should be purified to eliminate any and all biological contaminates that might have made it through the previous stages.
I would not really bother with full purification except for potable water, though some of the other non-biological-purification steps are a good idea for uses where that water could affect the body (bathing, dishwashing, laundry), animals, or food production.
Part F- Some notes:
1) Think outside the box
2) Start planning on which systems you can, or might be able to use
3) Start accumulating and storing materials now
4) DO YOUR RESEARCH
5) Have alternatives
6) Do not discount methods you think do not apply, they might later
7) Remember that you will get to the point that you cannot function well enough to keep yourself alive long before you actually die from dehydration
Consider opsec in all things
9) Be prepared to do things on a small scale, as well as any other larger scale you have in mind
Just my opinion.
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