Julie Fryer - The Complete Guide to Water Storage: How to Use Gray Water and Rainwater Systems, Rain Barrels, Tanks, and Other Water Storage Techniques

The Complete Guide to

Water Storage

How to Use Gray Water and Rainwater Systems, Rain Barrels, Tanks, and Other Water Storage Techniques for Household and Emergency Use

By Julie Fryer

A few years back we lost our beloved pet dog Bear, who was not only our best and dearest friend but also the Vice President of Sunshine here at Atlantic Publishing. He did not receive a salary but worked tirelessly 24 hours a day to please his parents.

Bear was a rescue dog who turned around and showered myself, my wife, Sherri, his grandparents Jean, Bob, and Nancy, and every person and animal he met (well, maybe not rabbits) with friendship and love. He made a lot of people smile every day.

We wanted you to know a portion of the profits of this book will be donated in Bears memory to local animal shelters, parks, conservation organizations, and other individuals and nonprofit organizations in need of assistance.

Douglas and Sherri Brown

PS: We have since adopted two more rescue dogs: first Scout, and the following year, Ginger. They were both mixed golden retrievers who needed a home.

Want to help animals and the world? Here are a dozen easy suggestions you and your family can implement today:

• Adopt and rescue a pet from a local shelter.
• Support local and no-kill animal shelters.
• Plant a tree to honor someone you love.
• Be a developer put up some birdhouses.
• Buy live, potted Christmas trees and replant them.
• Make sure you spend time with your animals each day.
• Save natural resources by recycling and buying recycled products.
• Drink tap water, or filter your own water at home.
• Whenever possible, limit your use of or do not use pesticides.
• If you eat seafood, make sustainable choices.
• Support your local farmers market.
• Get outside. Visit a park, volunteer, walk your dog, or ride your bike.

Five years ago, Atlantic Publishing signed the Green Press Initiative. These guidelines promote environmentally friendly practices, such as using recycled stock and vegetable-based inks, avoiding waste, choosing energy-efficient resources, and promoting a no-pulping policy. We now use 100-percent recycled stock on all our books. The results: in one year, switching to post-consumer recycled stock saved 24 mature trees, 5,000 gallons of water, the equivalent of the total energy used for one home in a year, and the equivalent of the greenhouse gases from one car driven for a year.

Introduction

Water that magical, flowing substance we see and use every day. We use it in our bathtubs, our lawns, our sinks, and even our cars. We drink it, cook with it, and wash with it. Our planet is more than 70-percent water, so it is hard to imagine a world in which we will not have as much fresh water as we need to do our laundry and quench our thirst. However, less than 1 percent of that water is usable. Accidents and disasters happen that can render even the most affluent or water-prosperous consumer without water for an unknown time.

Most people do not think about water storage or what would happen if there were a serious water shortage. It might seem like a strange idea to even consider drinking rainwater or recycling gray water (the waste water from washing machines and showers) to water your yard. If you live in a place where rainwater is abundant, it might not even occur to you to conserve that valuable rainwater for your yard, but as you will learn, water conservation is a global issue. Even if you do not need extra water for household use, it is always an idea to consider some emergency water storage.

A well-known example of the need for emergency water is to review what happened in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina struck South Florida and the Gulf Coast. Even with days of advanced warning, the aftermath of this storm left millions of people without access to clean water. Even with the mobilization of emergency crews and relief organizations handing out bottled water, the demand was high. Long after the hurricane hit, there was no electricity, and more important, there was no way to purify, pump, or supply clean water through municipal systems. Many people were unprepared and had no emergency water stores.