May142010
More on the swimming pool debate
A while back I posted an Instant Survival Tip stating that both the owner of a pool company, who would know exactly what goes into the chemicals, and a chemist had told me it was safe to drink pool water. Well, there were quite a few questions and comments on the topic that I wanted to do more research.
Believe it or not, I had a tough time finding experts who could answer my questions, including people with titles like, “Water Safety Expert”! Even National Terror Alert.com gave a confusing answer:
You should always view your pool as “backup” water; keep the water treated; you never know when it will be needed! The maintenance of the free
image by Lee Coursey
chlorine residual will prevent establishment of any microorganisms. The maintenance level should be kept about 3-5ppm free chlorine. If other stored water stocks are not available, remove the necessary pool water and boil it or just treat with chlorine to the normal 5ppm. It is best to err on the side of caution.
Robin Bain from the City of Peoria (Arizona) water department provided some good insight into the safety of pool water for drinking. She informed me that when water leaves the treatment plant, it contains between 1 and 1.5 mg chlorine residual per liter. The chlorine residual is in a form that is able to continue disinfecting the water as it passes through the pipes on its’ journey to your home. Chlorine is necessary to kill any type of pathogens that may exist in the pipes.
She went on with her explanation, stating that chlorine dissipates very quickly in the sunlight and is consumed by its’ reaction with the air and sunlight. Additional chlorine is added to pool water to keep algae away as well as sanitizing the water from any germs or other yucky things tracked in by people. She informed me that the chlorine isn’t the problem. The problem is the stabilizer added to pool chlorine. This stabilizer keeps the chlorine from evaporating as quickly, but the stabilizer never evaporates. The only way to reduce the amount of stabilizer in your pool water is to drain the pool, partially or completely, and refill with fresh water.
Alan Martindale, Water Quality Supervisor for the City of Mesa (Arizona), says there are four very important reasons to not consume swimming pool water, other than a gulp or two by accident when splashed in the face by your toddler.
- High total dissolved solids (mineral content such as chlorides, sulfates, calcium and magnesium) can cause a laxative effect, not a good problem to have in an emergency!
- Treatment chemicals are not safe for long term ingestion. Pool chlorine is often stabilized with cyanuric acid, a derivative of cyanide.
- Chlorine resistant critters such as Giardia and Crypto (typically from pets)
- Portability, many emergencies could require mobility, can’t move pool water very easily
Additionally, a power outage will shut down your pool’s pump and filtration system, leading to the growth of algae and other microbes within a few short days.
So what is pool water good for, besides swimming? It’s useful for bathing, flushing toilets, and perhaps, doing laundry. Actually, this is very good news for pool owners, since it means you only need to worry about storing water for drinking and cooking purposes. In an emergency, all that pool water will definitely not go to waste!
© 2010, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.
(14) Readers Comments
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Mike in Virginia
Would running pool water through a high-quality filter (I'm thinking of the Berkey Black filter "candles") remove all the bad chemicals and make the water completely safe and potable?
TheSurvivalMom
Mike, I have an email out to Alan Martindale regarding this question. I'm also wondering if boiling water gets rid of the stabilizer. I don't think it does. Whatever information I get, I'll post it as an update.
SHTF Mac
Great article. From my understanding, an activated carbon water filter can filter the chlorine out of the water to a safe enough level to drink. I keep a Katadyn Combi water filter in the bug out bag because it uses a silver lined filtration system, as well as activated carbon. Having something like this at home, especially if you own a pool, will make that pool water drinkable, even if the pumps stop working and it's got a healthy amount of chlorine.
Since most pool owners have a test kit already, if anyone's got a carbon filter and a pool, I'd be curious how effective this process is for removing chlorine. [I'd do it but I have no pool and I don't want to ask the neighbors, as they think I'm nutz as it is
]
TheSurvivalMom
Mac, remember, chlorine isn't the problem. There's chlorine right now in your drinking water. The stabilizer is the problem. I've contacted Alan Martindale with this and a few other questions and will post an update later this week. Thanks for stopping by! I'm thrilled to have the famous Mac Slavo as a devoted reader. ;o)
rightwingmom
Very good update. I can remember being warned as a child to NOT drink the pool water! Even with the warning, if we accidentally gulped too much down, we ended up with diarreha later in the day. We are not blessed with a pool, but the advice is still useful. Thanks for your research and hard work!
Water related:
My 2 liters are past their 1 year recommended limit. What do you do w/ yours?
I'm considering pouring out the water, drying them, and using them for dry storage: beans, noodles, flour, etc. (w/ a dessicant pack). Then replacing the water w/ new 2 liters, sterilized and filled w/ fresh water. (Rightwingdad's been busy drinking Diet Colas so I have plenty of 2 liters for my swap-out.)
TheSurvivalMom
I got terrible news this week, Cindy. My husband is giving up soda!!! What am I going to do when I need those plastic bottles for storage?? He's had a severe headache all week, so maybe that's God's way of telling him that giving up all that caffeine is a bad idea! LOL If you've had that water stored for a year, dump it out on some plants. I think the container would still be fine for storing dry goods, unless someone tells me otherwise.
Barbara
Again, chlorine is not the problem without the stabilizer. A day or two of sunshine takes out the chlorine if it weren't for the stabilizer. In a smaller amount of water it's even quicker. I'm interested to hear when you find out if filters like the Berkey take that stabilizer out. I don't have a swimming pool, so that subject is moot, but I keep several large storage tanks in the basement. I drain, clean and re-fill them every summer. I siphon the water up and water the garden with it. It all works out great, but it's still a job. If the water could be switched out less often I'd be happier. Without a reliable and inexpensive preservative, I'm not willing to risk it. I prefer not to use bleach or iodine. That can play havoc on digestive tract until you get used to it.
Red Icculus
Cyanuric acid is nasty stuff. If you use chlorine to sterilize water, just make sure it doesn't have this stabilizer. The chlorine will gas off in sunlight or poured between buckets a few times and be safe for drinking or cooking.
Chloramine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloramine#Health_risks) is another chemical used to sterilize water in a lot of municipal water supplies. It takes a strong chlorine shock to get rid of this nasty chemical.
Thank you for recent articles on water, it has been very insightful.
Mom23Wolves
Good research. I would agree that pool water is probably best viewed as grey water, having maintained a pool now for a few years. And you've likely described they way most people treat their pools. But if you do want to keep your pool for possible drinking water, you don't have to use the chemicals from the pool store. Last summer we used only bottled bleach and baking soda to keep our pool clear. I would recommend running it thru a Berkey or some such anyway, but at least the nastiest of the chemicals are at a more tolerable level. If a pool owner doesn't know how to do their own testing, uses pre-fab chemicals, and has no idea what their CYA level is… they should probably avoid drinking the water.
Nana
Question to Mom23: How did your pool work out using chlorine bleach and baking soda? That sounds interesting, not using the strong regular pool chemicals. Did you get similar results as using standard chemicals – did your pool stay as clean and clear? I would like to get away from those strong chemicals if possible, not to mention keeping the water safer if needed for other uses.
Mom23Wolves
It was somewhat harder, required a bit more time and effort. The stabilizer is there for a reason, so you can chuck a couple of disks in the baskets and not worry for a few days. The regular bleach does evap more quickly so you have to test more and use more by volume (the concentration is lower) … we had bleach bottles everywhere (I started using them to try to water the garden I put in amongst other things before I just started recycling wholesale). But bleach is bleach chemically … once the pool was in balance it looked just as good. Now of course we have other problems such as the filter going and the pool bot ailing … if only there were a good alternative for those!
Mom23Wolves
Hi Nana,
I tried to comment last night, but it wasn't approved for posting
So I leave the details out. It is a little more time consuming, the bleach comes in big bottles and you'll have a lot of them, but it's the same chemical. The pool looked nice though.
L P
After the grid has left us without power for a while, and the pool has become ripe and nasty, it might begin to breed mosquitoes. I've seen this in abandoned homes in our depressed area. Without filtration, that pool goes bad in a BAD way.
If you have a generator, the pump can be run for a couple hours every other day to supply some minimal amount of flow and filtration, at the same time other machines are in use. Maybe when the fridge is run, or sump or well pumps….
Keep some chlorine around to treat the water. Powdered chlorine is okay to store, from what I've heard, and is a compact form. There are shock packs for shock treatment. These are much smaller than their liquid equivalent.
Barbarvan
I am so gals I found this site. We have a pool and my husband thinks we could use the water for drinking but I do not.
I will be showing this to my husband so he'll know. I was thinking that it would be good enough for cleaning with.
I do pray it never gets to that point.