subject: Rainwater Tank Filtering For Clean Water [print this page] Many people use rainwater tanks to collect water for household uses. This can save a great deal of money depending upon how much water that you use. If you have a pump system, you can use rainwater for just about everything including irrigation, washing machines, showers and dishwashers, as well as running to sinks and toilets and being used for cooking and drinking. However, if you are going to use the rain water for drinking, then you should be aware that your collected rainwater should be carefully filtered before drinking.
There are several techniques that can be used to filter rainwater for personal use such as drinking, including ultra filtration and reverse osmosis. Rain water can be drank as it falls from the sky and is completely pure, but the contamination comes when the water is collected in the tanks, or pick up particles in the air as it comes down. Filtration is needed to remove pathogens and airborne pollutants, especially rain collected in heavily polluted areas where it falls through tainted air and becomes undrinkable.
In some areas, rainwater is not recommended for drinking for this reason, but if the water is filtered it shouldn't be a problem. Very few cases of getting sick from rainwater have been reported however, or becoming ill from the collection tanks. One of the ways that you can tell if rainwater is safe to drink is by smelling, tasting and looking at it. If all three of these check out, then it is probably safe to drink, but there are some contaminants that are too small to see and do not produce a bad smell or taste, including chemical contaminants and submicrometer metal.
You must be careful as well about what the rainwater is falling on for contamination. For instance, if the rainwater is falling on a roof and running into a collection rainwater tank, some roofing materials may pollute the water as well as some types of pain. Also, if there is tar on the roof, you cannot use that roof for water collection. Tar will make the water taste bad. Sometimes Zinc can get into the water and cause it to be undrinkable, as well as roofs that are made of fibrous cement. There are more problems with collecting on a roof than can be mentioned in this article.
You'll need to check your rain gutters and roofs that are collecting rainwater regularly for plant life that is growing and debris and dirt that gets into the gutters. You should remove the sediment regularly and clean the tank, as well as the gutters. Also, make sure that you keep a careful eye on the screens around your rainwater tanks. Mosquitoes may also be a problem. Make sure that the seal is secure around your water tanks because standing water often attract mosquitoes and become breeding grounds.
