Water: Still a TOP Prep and often Overlooked

Here I sit, dead in the water (or without water).  Every tap in the house is dry and I’ve got a well tech coming out in a few hours to tell me how much money this is going to cost me, I’m guessing somewhere between 1-2k [update: $2400] because these things are never cheap.  I’ve gone through about 15 gallons already this morning flushing the toilet a few times, washing some dishes, making coffee and filling up the solar shower that is currently baking in the sun so that I can at least have a relatively warm experience on the back deck.  These days people tend to focus on the fancy preps  like guns and ammo, or dare I even say toilet paper…with a couple cases of Costco water storage because hey it’s a given that water will always flow when the tap is turned right?  Not necessarily true my friends.

The Military Experience

Being self reliant when it comes to water is nothing new in the military, hauling around what we would use to drink with and do personal hygiene with is a common experience.  Bottles of water for drinking and cooking, larger 5 gallon jugs for bathing and other functions.  Never really had to worry about filling up toilet tanks (read: there were no toilets) as simply burying the waste was the preferred method.  I suppose even though it was a little Spartan there was always water to be had, the supply chain always came through and we never even questioned how much we were using or where it came from.  This as opposed to where I am now, there is no supply chain and unlimited supply but rather what I have in the ground.  As I have found, once that system is disrupted it’s total reliance on a 3rd party provider to come out to diagnose and repair whatever it is that might be wrong.

Two Times Without Water

This is the second time a house has run dry and both times the experience was similar in that it became very apparent how much actual water is used during the course of a normal day.  This because I had to haul it all by hand in order to use it as opposed to flipping a tap on and watching it flow.  The first time was back in the Midwest when for whatever reason our water was shut off by the city for a few days, the second time is right here and now.  We are so used to the convenience of water and so conditioned to it just being there on demand, I have to admit a few times I’ve turned the tap without thinking expecting water to flow and it hasn’t.  Being on a well and having backup power to run the well pump in the form of a generator I would expect that I’d be in a better position than those on city water, but today is a great example of even the best plans going south.  Maybe my well pump has actually failed and as that thing is 500 feet into the ground I have no way to diagnose it.  Hopefully it’s one of those instances where the tech comes out and does a few things and I’m back online (here’s a bill for $75) but we all know rarely is it that simple.  This house is 22 years old and last time they were out to perform a check they told me the only way to really know when a pump goes bad is when it dies…fantastic.  Is today the day?

Storage Considerations

I think it’s important to address water storage considerations and frame it up in terms of layers for different purposes.  Having pallets of water bottle storage is great but who wants to stand over a toilet dumping little bottles of water in the tank to flush?  Here’s where I’m at with storage:

Outside Emergency Water:  Between our large fountain and the hot tub, probably 800 gallons or so.  I consider this last resort type water that we could pull from in a truly SHTF experience.  We would have to filter or boil it for use but at least it’s there if need be.

55 Gallon Drums:  Great for water storage indoors (like a garage or basement) and I have mine labeled with the last time I filled and treated the containers.  The ability to store large quantities of water is there but it is anything but portable, I have a dedicated hand pump to transfer water from these vessels to other containers.

Water Bricks:  I bought 10 or so of these a while back and have used them in the past, they even have a separate cap with a twist spigot that makes things easy.  Water bricks are nice and portable at 3.5 gallons each and are easy to stack.  However you do have to source them online and they aren’t exactly cheap at $180 for 10 (current pricing as of this article).  I’ve found the spigot is the best way to use them for dishes or hygiene, if using for a shower one has to hold the brick up for the other person so not exactly optimal.

5 Gallon Jugs:  These are readily available at just about any supermarket, the kind with the handle that you exchange out near the sliding doors for maybe $5 or so.  I have 4 of these in the garage (in addition to several other 7 gallon containers) and have already gone through almost 3 this morning, it goes quick.  I have found that these are great for filling up toilet tanks or larger things like the solar shower I previously mentioned.  The good thing about these is that they are easy to transport and available just about most places and do not cost much to exchange / refill.  The fact that they aren’t purpose built to be stackable means a little more storage space but no big deal.

Water Bottles:  Pretty much the staple of convenient storage and also cheap, water bottle storage is nice to have on hand.  This morning I’ve been using little bottles to wash my hands and brush my teeth, refill the coffee maker and more.  I want to say 40 bottles at Costco is around $3, so having 5 to 6 packs stacked up is really easy to achieve.  They are transportable but are in such small quantities that means lots of waste and filling up larger containers is a slow process.

The Creek:  I suppose I should mention the creek as a final and ultimately last resort in my layer of water storage.  The problem with the creek is that it is almost a mile from my place and over 1000′ drop in elevation down a pretty nasty goat trail.  I’d have to hitch up a trailer to my ATV in order to haul water up from the creek, not exactly optimal but possible if things got really bad.

Final Thoughts

These days with CV and all of the other stuff going on, what we as preppers considered in theory has now become reality with respect to many things.  Storage supplies have been exercised in some capacity, plans have been laid into place for job / income loss, awareness has been raised along with our threat level(s).  With all that going on its easy to overlook some of the items that we consider essential to daily existence (and probably take for granted) like readily available water.  Make sure your stash is diversified and robust enough to support your needs.  This time will probably be a blow to my wallet but fixable…if this were more dire straights when a repair wasn’t a simple phone call away I could be in for a world of hurt.  I’ll update this article here at the bottom once I do get things fixed.

UPDATE:  Well pump died, quick diagnosis confirmed.  Currently it’s getting replaced at the paltry sum of around $2500…ugh.  The good news is that this happened during a time when technicians were able to come out and fix it and moving forward we’ll be good for a long time.  The other prep lesson here is: you must have a backstop of emergency funds.  While the cost isn’t great it’s nice to be able to write a check knowing it’s not going to crush us – or even worse having to put on a CC.  We weren’t always like that so it’s truly a blessing.