Storing Water

Store one gallon of water per person per day for 14 days. If you have a family of four, you need to have 56 gallons of water in storage. Or for our family of eight we would need 112, just for two weeks.

Interestingly enough the new guidelines (from the pamphlet All Is Safely Gathered In: Family Home Storage published by the LDS church) don't mention a specific amount of water to store, but two weeks is probably not a bad goal to start with.

Liahona message about the new guidelines

1. Gradually build a small supply of food that is part of your normal, daily diet until it is sufficient for three months.
   
2. Store drinking water.
   
3. Establish a financial reserve by setting aside a little money each week, and gradually increase it to a reasonable amount.
   
4. Once families have achieved the first three objectives, they are counseled to expand their efforts, as circumstances allow, into a supply of long-term basic foods such as grains, legumes, and other staples.
   

Here are some hints about water storage that I've kept in my Preparedness files at home.

• Pre-bottled water should be kept in the sealed bottle and used or discarded by the expiration date. I don't think I'd go for the discard option you could always use it for washing.
• Water can be stored in commercial water containers.
• Clean all containers before use. Do not reuse milk cartons for water (the will start to leak after a few years – it's NOT fun). Soda pop bottle are OK.
• Change water every six months if you have filled the containers yourself.
• Treated water from your faucet does not need drops of bleach added to purify it.**
• If you are using well water, add non-scented bleach. Eight drops of water per gallon or ½ teaspoon of bleach to 5 gallons of water.
• If you are storing water on a concrete floor, put blocks of wood or cardboard under your containers.
  
  

  UPDATE  6/21/12 - because it's time to change out my water and I couldn't remember what to do!

  
  

  This site was helpful too...  http://www.bae.ncsu.edu/programs/extension/publicat/wqwm/emergwatersuppl.html and another reason not to use milk containers is the cleanliness factor - you don't want little bits of milk residue growing in your water supply. 

  
  

  **According to this website: http://www.nationalterroralert.com/safewater/  you might still want to add the bleach - I think I will - better safe than sorry!

  
  

  Once you properly clean containers, fill them with potable, or safe, drinking water. All public water supplies are already treated and should be free of harmful bacteria. However, as an additional precaution, it is recommended that you add 5-7 drops, about 1/8 teaspoon, of chlorine bleach per gallon of water stored. This precaution protects you against any lingering organisms in storage containers that may have been inadvertently missed during the cleaning process.