Pool Water

[PwrCruz]

Dont know if this has been talked about , but how hard is it to purify pool water for drinking if at all possible.
Have a swimming pool which has 15,000 gal. and a hot tub is another 500 gal.
Just trying to come up with more water storage ideas. Also seems like a waste to have all that water sitting there and not being able to drink it if the SHTF.

 

[Bubbajms]

Depending on what kind of chemicals you use, it's possible..

 

[IndyGunworks]

I imagine some of the higher end water filters will be able to pull the bad stuff like chlorine out of the water before you drink it.

 

[Turtle]

Creative thinking.... thats what it takes to survive!

 

[Dr Falken]

I'm no chemist, but how long would the chlorine remain active in the water? And, our water here in Bloomington has been smelling like chlorine for a few months, I'm supposing some of what you ask is related to the PPM of chlorine to water, and if it was diluted enough would be potable.

 

[Bubbajms]

If you shut off Chlorination to an outdoor pool, the sun and heat will reduce the chlorine levels pretty quickly. It's not quite as fast in an indoor pool.

This is assuming you're using some sort of chlorine tablets or pellets, which are most common in the residential environment..

 

[jeremy]

You could always boil it...

 

[indyjoe]

You could always boil it...

That only kills biological threats in the water. It does not fix chemical issues with the water, unless you have a rare situation where the chemicals have lower boiling points than water and boil off.

Water being purified by boiling is assumed to be potable with the exception of biological threats.

 

[jeremy]

So exactly how much chlorine is to much? I know that I have drank chlorinated water before.

 

[Bubbajms]

A quick Google search says that municipal water is generally treated to around 4 parts per million..

The Association of Pool & Spa Professionals recommend between 2 and 4 PPM for a standard swimming pool.

According to these numbers (which I randomly found online, and could be incorrect) good pool water is potable.

The trick would be making sure your pool is chlorinated properly. In a professionally-administered pool, chemical levels are monitored electronically, and they feed chemicals as they're needed. The residential pool is usually randomly fed without the use of electronic monitoring systems, which makes the need to watch the chemicals a little more important. Chemical testing kits are rather inexpensive, and for this kind of purpose they don't have to be terribly accurate - you just want to know if your water is free of chlorine (which means you should probably filter/boil/etc it) or if it's too chlorinated (which means it needs to get rid of the chlorine).

According to the EPA, you can disinfect water in an emergency by putting in two drops of bleach per gallon of water, and dropping in additional drops until your water smells of bleach..

 

[jeremy]

The military has been using chlorine to purify water for decades.

 

[JD31]

This post was scary. I was thinking about the same thing last night. I was going to Google the answer today. This post saved me the trouble. This also might be a way of keeping the kids honest when they decide to get in and out. If they might have to drink the water later, no way they would add to the levels themselves.

 

[rhino]

Most people add other chemicals to their swimming pools in addition to chlorine, and anything that dissolves is going to stay there for the most part. Residual chlorine and hypochlorite ion are probably the least of your worries.

To be safe, you have only two options for pool water (assuming you did not take care to have a pool full of uncontaminated water):

1. Reverse Osmosis
2. Distillation

 

[indyjoe]

As Rhino says, I think the chlorine is the least problem. If you have used a pool shock with an anti-fungicide, etc. It might not just be water with some chlorine and pee.

 

[WinChoke]

As Rhino has stated, using distillation as a purifying method will make all 15,000 gallons potable.

I cannot vouch for RO being an effective method for removing bacteria.

 

[CarmelHP]

What chemicals are going in that are persistant? I would guess that every water company in the state is using a two-step potassium permanganate, hypochlorite treatment system. Both will evaporate given time. If you can swim in it, there is unlikely to be anything chemical in it that will hurt you. Wipe out the microbes and you should be good to go.

 

[Bubbajms]

Why bother with microbes? Keeps ya regular

 

[jeremy]

Why bother with microbes? Keeps ya regular

Hey wait a minute that's not funny! I have suffered from the third world squirts!

 

[Bubbajms]

It's not crappy until you realize the hole in the floor IS the toilet.. squatter's delight!

 

[jeremy]

Aw squatter's delight is not as bad as trying to get your pants down before you sphincter blows. Or trying to hold your gear up off the floor and balance yourself... Not that I know or anything...