Stored Water Chlorination

The easiest way to prepare water for storage is to simply pull water from the faucet in your kitchen and stabilize it against microbial growth using household, unscented chlorine bleach.  While it may seem like a perfect solution if you’re like us and would prefer to store purified water, this is something that can be done very quickly and easily for almost no cost at all.  If you don’t have a large container, simply save and use any soda or juice containers (milk containers aren’t recommended) and fill ‘em up.  Then add the appropriate amount of bleach and seal tightly.  To remove any remaining chlorine before consumption you have two options:   you can either just remove the cap and let the water outgas for a few hours as the chlorine will evaporate out of the water on its own fairly quickly, or you can speed up the process by boiling for five minutes.  Below is a table that details the correct quantities of bleach to add to your stored water:

4 drops bleach per quart or liter container of water

8 drops bleach per 2-quart, 2-liter, or ½ gallon container of water

16 drops bleach, or 1/4 teaspoon, per gallon or 4-liter container of water

When treating larger quantities of water, use the following table to convert drops to standard measuring units.

8 drops = 1/8 teaspoon

16 drops = 1/4 teaspoon

32 drops = ½ teaspoon

64 drops = 1 teaspoon

192 drops = 1 Tablespoon

384 drops = 1/8 cup which is equal to 2 Tablespoons