But need an answer quick - please. Hubby drained and refilled our above ground pool this week end. What kind of chemicals should we use in it if we want to use it for more than swimming next summer? Regular winterizing Chems or clorox? If clorox, how much? Pool is 15,000 gallons. Lots of green gunk grows in it if you don't trat it - been there done that! (Would most likely use the water for emus and chickens and watering - neighbor has a well we can hook into for our water as long as the gas for the gen holds.)

-- Valkyrie (anon@please.xnet), December 20, 1999

Answers

Normal pool chlorine should be simply hypochlorite which should be OK.

C

-- Chuck, a night driver (rienzoo@en.com), December 20, 1999.

Thanks chuck - appreciate it.

-- Valkyrie (anon@please.xnet), December 20, 1999.

Valkyrie: If the water is intended for consumption, you MUST make sure the hypochlorite is NOT UV-stabilized. That's done using a cyanide product. I think HTH is cyanide-free, but ask your pool company. Unstabilized chlorine will outgas faster, so you may need to treat it more often than usual.

-- ldeeds (ldeeds@kumc.edu), December 20, 1999.

Valkrie

You mention watering. Watering plants and veggies?? I backwashed my pool (one time) in the yard and the yard did not like it at all. I wouldn't recommend using pool water (treated with chlorine of any kind) to water your gardens.......

Deano

-- Deano (deano@luvthebeach.com), December 20, 1999.

I would NOT use the water for animals as they say there is no way to make pool water safe to drink. Do you want to eat chicken laced with toxins? Please check the archives here and on the preps board. I believe there is no way you can use pool water except to swim in, as a bath substitute.

-- Mara (MaraWayne@aol.com), December 20, 1999.

You won't need to worry about the pool water when the radiation levels are so high from all the dirty (ground burst) nuclear explosions that are going to take place.

Fortunately, I have a friend that works at the local cement plant, and have built a nifty place to go and wait out the next few decades!

Frank

-- Frank McGraw (communic@excite.com), December 21, 1999.

You'll want to use just enough plain, non-UV stabilized chlorine to keep the pool clear. Your pool test kit will tell you when you need to treat the water. A pool cover will help to keep the water clean and cut down on chlorine loss, just make sure the animals and children don't get onto the cover unless it's one of the covers designed for it.

The following is a part of the section on maintaining a swimming pool for both recreation and as an emergency drinking water supply from the water chapter of my book The Prudent Pantry: Your Guide to Building a Food Insurance Program. It may help to make some things clearer. The entire water chapter is about forty five pages long.

==============

Pool Chemicals

There are two major concerns when it comes to using swimming pools as a potable water source. The first is the microbial life the water might contain. If the pool is being properly maintained this is likely to be a very small concern and easily rectified, but it should not be overlooked. Water disinfection is covered below (the other parts of the chapter). The other concern is the chemicals used to maintain the pool. The primary substances of interest are chlorine stabilizers, particularly those containing cyanuric acid, algaecides containing copper and any pool chemical containing bromine. Of lesser hazard, but still undesirable is any chemical or mechanism that introduces high levels of salt (sodium chloride) into the pool water. A careful reading of the label, particularly the active ingredient listing, will tell you what's in a particular product.

Cyanuric acid is used as a stabilizer for chlorine in pools to slow evaporative loss from sun exposure. It is normally used in concentrations of 30-80 parts per million (ppm), but at levels of 100 ppm it begins to take on carcinogenic (cancer causing) properties. Since the water has a dual role of both swimming and drinking it is best not to use any pool product that contains this substance. After all, drinking water laden with it will expose you to a great deal more of it than would merely swimming in it and occasionally gulping a mouthful. The only way to lower cyanuric acid levels is to dilute it by adding new water to the pool, possibly several feet of it. Naturally, by foregoing the use of cyanuric acid stabilizers the rate of chlorine evaporation will be higher than if you had used it. The bottom line is you must choose between having to use (and buy) more chlorine and using a potential carcinogen in your emergency drinking water supply.

Copper based chemicals are typically used as algaecides to keep pools from turning green or brown in warm summer weather or to reclaim one that already has. Copper reaches its toxicity level in relatively low concentrations and the World Health Organization has set its maximum limit at one (1) ppm. Unfortunately, most readily available test kits do not begin to detect high copper levels until it has already reached the maximum limit or above. Like cyanuric acid above, occasionally swallowing a mouthful of pool water gives little exposure, but consistently drinking pool water most certainly does. For this reason, algaecides containing copper compounds should not be used. Regular skimming of the pool water and brushing of the walls, ladders and any other place that algae might gain a foothold is the best method of controlling it. Brushing disrupts the viscous slime coating of the algae cells and allows the chlorine to get in and do its work.

A chemical alternative to copper is to use a colloidal silver based algaecide, one such is sold under the brand name of "Silver Algaedyn" and is EPA approved for use in pools. Thirty two ounces will serve to kill algae in 20,000 gallons of water.

In swimming pools bromine is mostly used as an algaecide, but in hot tubs, spas and jacuzzis it commonly replaces chlorine since it is much more resistant to heat and does not have a detectable odor in hot water the way chlorine does. I have not yet found any solid information on maximum limits on bromine, but I DO NOT recommend drinking it in any quantity. My reason for this is that in the dozens and dozens of sources of information on water disinfection I have found, NOT ONE has mentioned bromine for use in potable water. This should be a clear warning. Swimming in it is one thing, drinking large quantities of it is another thing altogether.

Bromine presents a special problem for use of pools for potable water. It does not evaporate the way chlorine does, nor does it combine with other substances and become unavailable for later activity. In fact, the very next time chlorine is added to the pool the free chlorine will oxidize the spent bromine back into elemental bromine and it is the chlorine that becomes inactive. Thus, once bromine has been added to a pool the pool will always have bromine in it. Some of the better pool test kits will measure bromine levels. If you are not certain of the history of the chemicals used in your pool then you should test the water using a kit that will show bromine levels after the next time you shock the pool.

There's only one solution to the bromine problem and that is to drain the pool, scrub it out with muriatic acid, then trisodium phosphate (follow your pool maintenance instructions carefully here) and refill with fresh water. A gallon of acid in five gallons of water and a couple of ounces of dishwashing detergent such as Dawn as the scrubbing solution will suffice. A hard stripping is not necessary. The TSP after will neutralize any remaining acid and remove any oils that have accumulated. Don't neglect your filter while you're at it and all plumbing pipes should be flushed. This all requires a lot of elbow grease and even more water, but it's the only way that I know of to eliminate the bromine.

Salt build up will typically not be a problem in pools unless you fill them with water containing high levels of salt to begin with, particularly if you haven't changed the water in a long time. There are also pool chlorinators that use salt as its feedstock to derive chlorine from and they can put quite a lot of salt in the water, enough even to be able to taste it. This is not recommended.

There are dozens of pool maintenance products available on the market some of which have active ingredients other than the ones mentioned above. As a general rule the ONLY chemicals I would use in a pool that I might need to drink serious quantities of water from are:

Chlorine, either calcium hypochlorite (HTH or similar brand), laundry bleach (plain sodium hypochlorite, typically 5.25%) or other form of plain, unstabilized chlorine. For shocking, disinfecting and oxidizing combined chlorine compounds.

Muriatic acid. For lowering pH levels. Be sure to use all acid precautions.

Baking soda or soda ash. For raising pH levels and/or increasing total alkalinity.

Water clarifier. The polymeric types are typically easy to filter out. There is one brand, Robar Super Blue, that claims to be EPA approved for use in drinking water with one ounce treating 5,000 gallons of water. There may be others as well, but read the label carefully. Clarifiers such as these may be a good idea if your pool filter is not the best at removing the really small particles.

Alum. A flocculent used in municipal water treatment. In turbid water is causes particles too small to be easily filtered out to coalesce into larger clumps which then either settle out on their own or can be more easily caught in filters. Seldom needed.

Sequestriant chemicals. For chemically binding certain metals and compounds, like copper, to make their particle sizes large enough to catch in the filter. Removing them can prevent staining. They must be used in advance of any possible crisis as they require as much as several weeks of running the pump and a fine filter such as diatomaceous earth to remove the particles. Also seldom needed.

Excerpted from The Prudent Pantry: Your Guide to Building a Food Insurance Program. Copyright 1999, Alan T. Hagan =====================

......Alan.

The Prudent Food Storage FAQ, v3.5

http://www.providenceco-op.com

-- A.T. Hagan (athagan@netscape.net), December 21, 1999.