NWMR: Question for those with Well Water

snicksnack

We recently bought a house on a well.  I know if we lose electrify we basically don’t have water except for what is in the tank.  We have a small generator that can help with that, but my main concern is what if the well is compromised AKA leak at a gas station for example. This has happened twice in my county is the last ten or twenty years.  We have four people and two cats.  I know the recommendation is three days of water per person, which is a lot of water so I am wondering how do you store water and what do you buy?  I know we could do three large cases per person but that is a lot of plastic bottles, which if not used could break down etc...TIA <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Puppies+Rainbows+Unicorns

We had an extra holding tank.  Seems odd that you would be on a well system and not city water if you were close to a lot of things that could cause issues.  How far away from a possible pollutant are you?   

welly01

Puppies+Rainbows+Unicorns said:

We had an extra holding tank.  Seems odd that you would be on a well system and not city water if you were close to a lot of things that could cause issues.  How far away from a possible pollutant are you?   

The people across the street from us, literally across the road, are on city water.  We just happen to be on the edge of their limit.

OP, sorry, I don't have any advice.  But an extra holding tank sounds interesting.

litzo27

Wow. We have well water but no extra water. I never heard about a pollutant in our area but am off to do my research now.

snicksnack

We live in an area that was all farms and it now being built up.  There is a gas station a couple miles away and a shopping center in walking distance.  Our whole county is mainly on well. I am going to look into the extra tank idea

rockychryslerb2010

I grew up with well water.  The only time I remember my parents 'stocking' up on water was Y2k!  They purchased some drinkable water, but also would just fill old milk containers with water to use.  Anytime they are predicting bad weather (blizzard, hurricane, etc) they just fill up the bathtub with water to use for flushing toilets.

snicksnack

thanks everyone.  I never had a well so was just wondering if I needed to plan.  Good idea for having water near the bathroom for flushing.  When it comes to storms I tend to plan and stock water anyway.

2-Step

We also just moved to a home on a well, although we are not likely to be contaminated because we are pretty rural and at the foothills of the Cascades, but you never know. I honestly hadn't thought about the power outage affecting the water! My parents keep a large barrel outside filled with water for flushing toilets etc should they need it. You can also purchase big water cans that look like gas cans but are sanitary inside for drinking water. I've seen them at just about every store that carries gas cans. I have about two cases of water in the garage, but should probably stock up before winter for the power outage thing! Thanks for posting, you got me thinking about being prepared!

One thing I purchased for emergency situations is called the Life Straw. It is basically as straw with a filter inside the makes almost any water drinkable. Many backpackers use it. I just bought it to put in our emergency kit because we have rivers and lakes all around us where we could get water, and if we needed emergency drinking water we could use that for quite some time, in more of a survival situation where there was a natural disaster or something. 

Another thing you might do is call your well service company. I just had our guy out to explain the water softening system to me and he said that there are additional filters they can put in the system for high risk areas. We don't have any of them, but he said you can get them installed for almost any type of contaminant. Not sure how much that costs though!