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Letter Re: Sources for Plumbed-In Reserve Water Tanks?

Jim -
Do any SurvivalBlog suppliers have water tanks that can be plumbed into the home water system before passing the water on through to the house as recommended by Joel Skousen? Our Insulated Concrete Form (ICF) home construction is in progress with the basement walls poured and the retaining walls and dividing/shelter wall formed for pour this next week.- D.A.B.

JWR Replies: The best tanks to use are standard, off-the-shelf, plastic septic tanks, bought brand new. A good friend of mine bought three 1,700 gallon tanks and had them plumbed "in parallel" and buried in the yard outside of his new house. (He used Joel Skousen's specifications for plumbing them in to his house/shelter water system. They provide low pressure gravity feed to his basement shelter.) It is noteworthy that is that these tanks are essentially a generic commodity made by dozens of plastics manufacturers and they can be ordered through virtually any building supply store. They are inexpensive (in terms of cost per gallon) and quite durable. They also flex a bit, which is an important consideration if you are in an area subject to frost heaving or earthquakes. OBTW, I recommend that if your installation leaves any part of the tanks exposed (such as their "clean out" lids) that you paint those portions heavily with opaque paint or asphalt emulsion, to minimize UV degradation of the plastic.

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