If your long term water storage is from your well there will be nothing to inhibit organic contaminants if there are any so it may be a good idea to add some chlorine bleach.
Long term water storage bleach.
Ok so we ve determined that bleach may not be the most viable option for long term storage so what does work.
Swimming pool water test strips.
However fema advises emergency disinfection of water with bleach as a last resort.
The best way to purify water for short or long term is aerobic stablized oxygen or asap silver solution.
Raising the chlorine levels.
It is just not as harmful as the microbes that would be in the water without it.
One tablet sterilizes 1 gallon of water and there s 150 tablets in a bottle.
You have a couple of options.
Steramine tablets are often used in restaurants daycares and other places that need to sanitize hard surfaces.
Considering the importance of water it always surprises that so many survival minded people don t take the topic more seriously.
For old containers sanitize them with a solution of 1 teaspoon of household bleach for every quart of water.
Certainly if sourced from a pond or stream you should treat the water to eliminate organic contamination.
If your municipal water supply isn t within the ideal chlorine content range for long term storage many supplies aren t then you will need to treat it prior to storage.
Fema s recipe is about 8 drops of bleach for each gallon of water.
How to disinfect water in a 55 gallon barrel for long term storage once the barrel is thoroughly cleaned and located in its permanent home fill it with the cleanest water available.
Disinfecting water for long term storage.
To store water long term start by getting plastic or stainless steel food or beverage containers and cleaning them thoroughly.
Emergency water storage is a topic that most survivalists are pretty familiar with.
If the containers are new wash them out with soap and hot water.
For long term water storage you might consider increasing this to 3 4 ppm to be assured of a maximum safe level for drinking according to the epa to eliminate and prohibit growth of pathogens.
As a reminder bleach wasn t intended for human consumption.
See fema for more on emergency water purification.
You may choose to disinfect the water at the time of storage to ensure there are no microscopic bugs in the water that could multiply during storage.
Google both and get the facts.
I prefer to use a clean rv drinking water hose to when filling a water barrel to ensure that the water is not contaminated during the filling process by a garden hose.
The ready store is telling you for long term storage you need a better source than chlorine bleach and they have one.
Clean food grade containers and clean drinking water should be used for long term water storage.
Purification methods available then consider bleach to purify your water.