# Assume a local water outage...



## sideKahr (Oct 15, 2014)

Due to a NON-SHTF situation. The authorities bring the water buffaloes to your neighborhood. You accept the water in order to stretch your own stored suppy.

Would you filter or sterilize it?


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## Moonshinedave (Mar 28, 2013)

Good question, I went through a water shortage due to a chemical spill a year of so back. I got water in 5 gallon buckets at work I used for cooking and stuff, for drinking water, I relied on bottle water. 
Now in your scenario I'd be getting all the water from the government via a water buffalo?, Yeah, I think I boil it before using it.


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## Jakthesoldier (Feb 1, 2015)

Boil and filter. Field sanitation course is about 2 hours long.


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## Prepared One (Nov 5, 2014)

I would boil it.


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## SOCOM42 (Nov 9, 2012)

Short term, bottled for consumption, nothing rolling from officials. 
Would not touch stored water, that is last ditch, period.
I would run the hosing to the river and pump it for other uses. 
I would then chlorinate and run through filter for potable water if needed at any point.
Under worse case scenario, potable would come from the 15 gallon still.
If I took the buffalo water, I would boil it.


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## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

Chances are I would not take/need it, if so would use for toilet/washing, but anything drank would be filtered/purified and/or boiled.

1) Location 1 : deep well, mountain spring 200 yds up the hill, and spring fed stream 1/4 mile away

2) Location 2 : 1500 gallons storage but no spring/stream, would need filtration but the filters/purifiers are in place. Working on a bio-sand setup. Need to get a well going.


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## Chipper (Dec 22, 2012)

I simply won't live where I have to rely on city or municipal water. If it doesn't come out of the ground via spring I don't want it. After being in the army I don't think any water out of a buff is good for anything but washing clothes. Use at your own risk even if you boil it.


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## CWOLDOJAX (Sep 5, 2013)

We deal with this in FL often.
Sink holes, shallow water table, busted water lines, local flooding etc.
Everyone is instructed on the radio stations to boil. We boil.


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## whoppo (Nov 9, 2012)

Unknown source... not for drinking... especially if it's a gift from the feds.

We have a deep, reliable well at home and our "camping" properties all have spring fed running water.


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## paraquack (Mar 1, 2013)

Living in AZ would most likely force me to use "their" water. Filter, and boil for sure. You never know if the guy filling the buffaloes washed his hands after using the potty, or thought it would be funny to spit in one or....


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## Spice (Dec 21, 2014)

Filtering with a proper filter *is* sterilizing it. I'd consider boiling a waste of time and energy and just run the stuff through one of the filters. (This happened last week just a block behind my house. Sewer guys missed a little...)


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## Camel923 (Aug 13, 2014)

For all we know the water came out of the Monongahela with all of its industrial waste. Filter, boil and and whatever else.


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## Seneca (Nov 16, 2012)

As a precaution I'd filter it through my Big Berkey. Anything with a ceramic filter should work. If I suspected the water was contaminated with heavy metals or chemicals, I'd use it for other than drinking to stretch my supply of potable water.


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## sideKahr (Oct 15, 2014)

I tend to agree with boiling as a minimum. You eliminate the bacteriologic risk at least.

I did a lot of work with tank trucks in my younger days. I have seen expensive loads of product contaminated by improper cleaning of the tank after hauling the previous load. If there was a desperate need for water by large numbers of people, would the authorities press into water hauling service any truck they could find? That could be dangerous.

So boiling AND filtering seems to be SOP. Or just not drinking it would be best, I guess.


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## Auntie (Oct 4, 2014)

I read a book about how the government was controlling people by putting pharmaceuticals in the water. I can't remember what book it was or I would post it. With the way the government is acting now I would be suspicious. 

Does your filter remove pharmaceuticals? Does boiling remove pharmaceuticals?

/removing foil hat now


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## sideKahr (Oct 15, 2014)

Auntie said:


> I read a book about how the government was controlling people by putting pharmaceuticals in the water. Does your filter remove pharmaceuticals? Does boiling remove pharmaceuticals?


Good question! Will 212 degrees F destroy drug molecules. Will a filter designed to remove viruses remove drug molecules, which are smaller than viruses? Will activated carbon adsorb drugs?


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## SOCOM42 (Nov 9, 2012)

sidekahr said:


> good question! Will 212 degrees f destroy drug molecules. Will a filter designed to remove viruses remove drug molecules, which are smaller than viruses? Will activated carbon adsorb drugs?


you can eliminate all organic and inorganic chemistry and pathogens by using a still.

chlorinate then evaporate.


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## Spice (Dec 21, 2014)

sideKahr said:


> Good question! Will 212 degrees F destroy drug molecules. Will a filter designed to remove viruses remove drug molecules, which are smaller than viruses? Will activated carbon adsorb drugs?


Boiling will deactivate some, but not all, drug molecules. Particulate filters, even virally small, will not. Activated carbon would absorb many, but not all.

On the other hand, dosage control would be such a Nightmare that water delivery would be an Enormously stupid way to deliver psychoactive drugs, even were someone inclined to want to do that. If you want to wear a foil hat, pick the one who's band is embroidered with 'botulinum toxin'.


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## Prepadoodle (May 28, 2013)

Distilling water would probably remove the drugs, but it would also remove the minerals. The resulting water might tend to absorb minerals from your body, which isn't a great thing. The long term effects are mostly unknown, but probably bad for your health.

Although it's not a good idea to drink the water produced by an air conditioner or dehumidifier (these are breeding grounds for a host of pathogens and the water is also contaminated with metals and other stuff) there are devices that use the same principal to produce drinking water from the air. These aren't cheap, at roughly $1,000 to $1,500, and your air has to be around 70% relative humidity or better, and they use a lot of energy (500W to over 1,000W) but if you use a lot of bottled water, they might be worth a look. Expect to pay from about $0.16 to over $0.50 per gallon for the water they produce. (which will be lacking minerals)

Air2Water, AquaMaker, EcoloBlue, Planet's Water, and Sustainable Village all make what they call, "atmospheric water generators."

For me, though, I'll stick to my Big Berkey or my Sawyer .02 and boil it first if I think it's necessary.


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## bigwheel (Sep 22, 2014)

Thats why we bought the Sawyer Mini filters. i seen one ad for either them or life staws where they were sucking up water from a hot pile of fresh human turds. Should also work on buffaloes.


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## tinkerhell (Oct 8, 2014)

If you are brave enough to get water from a water bufalo, you can go right ahead.

I will stick to my water preps.


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## SOCOM42 (Nov 9, 2012)

To add to the still post;
If you can control the temperature, you can cook off any methanol and ethanol that may be present.


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## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

SOCOM42 said:


> To add to the still post;
> If you can control the temperature, you can cook off any methanol and ethanol that may be present.


No, ethanol forms an azeotrope. (95% ethanol at 78 oC). That is "grain". Maybe distill the remains.

Unless you have sophisticated distillation apparatus, methanol won't fully separate either ( bp 64 oC vs 100 oC). Drink that and go blind.

P.S. in past lives I have taught Biochemistry and Chemistry at Universities. Besides being woods/farm born and know all that stuff too.


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## PaulS (Mar 11, 2013)

In a reflux still you can precisely control the temperature of condensation. With a tall enough stack you could distill water at one point on the stack and alcohol at another simultaneously.


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## SOCOM42 (Nov 9, 2012)

pauls said:


> in a reflux still you can precisely control the temperature of condensation. With a tall enough stack you could distill water at one point on the stack and alcohol at another simultaneously.


This is what i was getting at, and I have one.
For all practical purposes, IMO, a minature cracking tower.


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## bigwheel (Sep 22, 2014)

Yall are apparently back into the marriedjamama again. Making distilled water with a moonshine still aint real functioinal. The methanol and other nasty stuff comes up first. They call those the fore shots..or when into the hobby call if fores. It smells like paint thinner mixed with fingernail remover. Dont make much but it needs tossing out or using it to clean E cigs or something. So next comes Heads. It has a faint aroma of odd stuff..but way better than the Fores. Used to give certain beverages a distinctive twang. Then comes the heart which is where the drinking goes on. It smells like mothers milk sorta. No hangovers allowed. Ok trailing to the rear is called Tails. It smells sorta like a dirty gym sock. It can be drank ok if a person holds the nose. Sorta like the real cheap stuff at the Likker Store. Envision Bowmans Bourbon. After all that marlarky the disilled water comes next. Got to get real hot to get some. Then it smells and tastes like sheet. For them who drinks beer and wine all that garbage comes included. An extractor cleans it up and makes less bulk. Makes it fit to drink in other words.


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## SOCOM42 (Nov 9, 2012)

BW, how much do you make a week with yours?
REALLY quite informed!!


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## Urinal Cake (Oct 19, 2013)

I treat all my water including 5 gal bottles water w Adya Clarity. you will see the agglutinated, neutralized contaminants in the bottom of the water cooler with every jug swap.


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## paraquack (Mar 1, 2013)

Any time I'm not sure of the purity of the water I drink (most of the time), I find that adding 1-2 ounces of a good or bad bourbon per glass of water gives me enough confidence to be sure there are no germs swimming in my glass of water. After two or three, the germs don't care either.


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## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

PaulS said:


> In a reflux still you can precisely control the temperature of condensation. With a tall enough stack you could distill water at one point on the stack and alcohol at another simultaneously.


Even with sophisticated chemistry apparatus total separation is not easy. I have done this and analyzed many distillate fractions using GC/MS of many types of mixtures. Even with mixtures that can be separated, many laborious re-distillations are required.

Condensate temperature can be misleading, owing to the thermometer itself, altitude/atm. pressure, rate of reflux/distillation, and exactly where the condensate is measured in the apparatus.

This type of experiment I have instructed many times in an introductory Organic Chemistry laboratory. "Pure" fractions are often not so, when initially judged by temperature, then analyzed by more precise means.

I have also separated reaction mixtures of various liquids, some of which were priorly unknown, to high purity. It is not as trivial as it seems.


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## sideKahr (Oct 15, 2014)

You nailed it, MadTrapper. I spent a whole trimester in my final year of B.S.Chem purifying an organic reaction product for some early NMR work. Thirteen weeks, and I ended up with about 60 grams of the stuff.


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## Urinal Cake (Oct 19, 2013)

sideKahr said:


> You nailed it, MadTrapper. I spent a whole trimester in my final year of B.S.Chem purifying an organic reaction product for some early NMR work. Thirteen weeks, and I ended up with about 60 grams of the stuff.


60 grams! at $100 per Gram your stuff was worth a lot of money!


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## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

Urinal Cake said:


> 60 grams! at $100 per Gram your stuff was worth a lot of money!


I started with stuff that was 6 and 4 cents a gram and product was over $100/gram, 6-methyl-1-heptene.

And I worked on mole scale reactions, then purified several reactions at once.

No, never illegal drugs.

But used for educational purposes. SM for the following: Synthesis of (±)-disparlure. - PubMed - NCBI

The gypsy moth phermone, disparlure


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## Will2 (Mar 20, 2013)

If you have room to store it why not?

Take what you can and give it to others in need if so later.

i would be more concerned with the contaminated water the government considers undrinkable more than the stuff they consider usable.

Most watersupplies are contaminated. There are "safe" shortterm midterm and longterm exposure levels for the chemicals in the water. Part of the issue is that municipalities don't filter out the crap. So estrogen and medicines other people use get diluted into our water and we all get medicated from it. Female hormones are not good for men but since the pill came around water supplies have gotten elevated levels of estrogen. Industrial processes have devestated water. Worse yet with all the human waste being put into the water supply there have been lots of nastyness. Farm runoff can also be a major problem. Thankfully things have gotten better from past decades, fish stocks have started recovering, and people use Brita or other particulate filters to reduce the level of contamination and remove chemical cleaners. It is deemed safe but I would guess most doctors don't drink tap water if they have any insight into what is in it. 

Personally I do drink tap water sometimes, but I have been using a not too effective brital water bottle as of late for a chunk of my eating. I would hope the water is ok up here as the population is low and there aint too much industry. Sadly mining has occured up here and mines are some of the worst industries for water quality.

If the gov says not to drink tap water I am hell anot going to. I have experienced numerous brown water events - atleast one which may have killed my gut about 20 years ago. I have nearly been killed by a raw sewage discharge. I had no warnings of those events. I don't expect one next time I go for water and find a funny taste or odd colour, I don't trust gov to protect me but if they are actually making an active effort, it must be really really bad.


Also yeah distiillation is probably the safest, but it can use energy too. Ideally use a safe water source. I get lots of rainfall up here and I have lots of small lakes that are mostly meltwater. I have two micron filters but one may be damaged, and the other is saved for emergency use or travel. Mostly so I can get water from rivers if I am hiking or camping. It isn't practicle to use them in freezing temperatures.


Also delayed use can help stave off being the normative victim - you can always check with others who use the water to see the effects. Now in event of a major event, if the government has mixed the water with other stuff to "help people" for instance from expsoure to radiological, biological or chemical agents, using the stuff may have a greater benefit without delay. However you might want to do some research to prevent black swan/falseflag or event test the water, as some people have water testing kit these days.

As the gov about where they sourced the water, and how to purify it or if it should be boiled etc..

Got pets, inlaws, house guests etc.. you dont love that much? The smaller the better. Hey if the Gov says it is safe it must be right?

This is the same gov that if one person dies they make a law reversing the cause of death and making it a violation to not protect from that cause of death.

What ever happened to slip and slides, you know the story. They should just make helmets mandatory while outside and save the trouble in waiting for future deaths. Get some protective armour for everyone, light high balistic protective clothing mumus. Have cars maxed out at the speed limit of the road type they are intended for. No highway cars in the city no city cars in the highway etc.. it is the future, it is coming.


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## Smitty901 (Nov 16, 2012)

I can not count the days, months I lived on water out of the water buffalo. The Army cleaned them and never spared the chlorine in them. We would let the water sit a while before we drank. This would not effect us. Those of us that don't live in towns would not get help from the government even if we needed it. If you don't live in their cities you don't madder.
That is ok for us we have our own water and while the cities water may have problem we will be ok.


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## tinkerhell (Oct 8, 2014)

Can someone please tell me what a water buffalo is?


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## James m (Mar 11, 2014)

tinkerhell said:


> Can someone please tell me what a water buffalo is?


It's the term for a military style trailer that carries water. It looks like a fuel tank for kerosene but on a trailer.

Please see link.

http://olive-drab.com/od_mvg_vehicle_id_trailers_tank.php


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## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

James m said:


> It's the term for a military style trailer that carries water. It looks like a fuel tank for kerosene but on a trailer.
> 
> Please see link.
> 
> Tank Trailers for Military Vehicles


Yes about same size as the ammo trailer. Same tires as a Duece and a half. I have one of the ammo M332 trailers. Will pull a whole lot of wood behind a big farm tractor and not grunt a bit. Pintle hitch. Not sure of the gallons on the buffalo. About 1.5 tons.


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## Medic33 (Mar 29, 2015)

I got 2(two wells) what water problem?


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## PaulS (Mar 11, 2013)

Yep! it would be hard to have a water outage using your own well. Even if it went "dry" it would supply water enough to survive. It couldn't sneak up on you either you would know that problems were on the horizon for some time before it got bad.
Then you have two choices: drill it deeper or drill a new one. In my area I could go deeper easier than putting in a new well.


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