Water

How much, and in what

The per-person figure, what to store it in, and whether it goes off.

• Where the One-Gallon-Per-Person-Per-Day Number Comes FromFEMA says one gallon. Most preparedness sites now say two. The disagreement is about scope rather than facts, and knowing what the original figure excluded tells you which number you need.
• What to Store Water In: Containers, Plastics, and What LeachesA used juice jug works and a used milk jug does not. Which plastics are suitable, why five gallons is the practical ceiling, and what actually fails in stored water containers.
• Does Stored Water Go Bad? Rotation, Treatment, and Shelf LifeWater itself does not expire. What degrades is the container, the seal, and anything that got in when you filled it, which is why the six-month rotation rule is about your filling technique rather than about chemistry.
• The Water Already in Your House: Heater, Pipes, and TankA water heater holds 40 to 80 gallons of potable water most people never count. The procedure to get it out has three steps that matter, and doing them in the wrong order damages the heater.

Treatment

Filtering, purifying and distilling are three different jobs. Most products only do one. Bleach dosing depends on the strength printed on the bottle.

• How Much Bleach Per Gallon: The Number Changed and Most Charts Didn'tHousehold bleach got stronger and most dosing charts did not change. The familiar per-gallon figure is keyed to the old formulation, and a government page is still publishing it.
• Filter, Purify, or Distill: What Each One Actually RemovesWater treatment marketing uses filter, purifier, and purification interchangeably. They are not the same thing, they remove different classes of…

Collection and alternative supply

• How Much Rainwater Can You Collect From Your Roof?Calculate roof runoff, realistic collection yield, tank overflow, and days of non-potable supply from rainfall and catchment area.
• Can You Really Make Drinking Water From Air? What the Measurements ShowPulling drinking water out of thin air is not a trick. It is a dehumidifier with a filter on the end, and dehumidifiers work. The question is never…

Supply and scarcity

• The Colorado River Shortage, Explained Without the Sales PitchMost water-scarcity marketing in the preparedness world traces back to one real situation: the Colorado River is over-allocated, its reservoirs have…