permaculture

["Marsha Hanzi" <hanzibra@svn.com.br>]

I also recommendo highly the book Living Energies , about Viktor
Schauberger´s work on water quality.  There it shows that the form of the
tank can improve the quality of the water. (Written by Callum Coats)...and
much more.

Marsha


----- Original Message -----
From: Scott Pittman <pci@permaculture-inst.org>
To: permaculture <permaculture@franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Sent: Friday, December 01, 2000 7:17 PM
Subject: Re: Water Catchment Walls


> Toby, I'm not currently drinking roof caught water but am building it into
> my new house.  I have drank cistern water in Australia, South America, and
> Southeast Asia and certainly trust it more than well or surface water in
> those areas.  I don't know of a single case of anyone in those areas
> treating water with anything.  The primary safety measure is to have a
roof
> wash mechanism which takes the first gallons that falls on the roof and
> dumps it in growing beds or some other useful place and then diverts the
> water from the cleaned roof to the cistern.  Other than using limestone,
or
> marble chips to raise the pH I don't think anything else is necessary.
> There is a natural biological process that takes place in the cistern
which
> sequesters most organic matter in a mat on the bottom of the tank,
> therefore it is good to have your outlet some 18 inches above the bottom
of
> the tank to avoid the accumulated material.  It is a bad idea to clean and
> sterilize your tank, unless you manage to get a dead animal in it, because
> it destroys beneficial bacteria.
>
> One of the best sources on Cistern Catchment is through the CSIRO web site
> in Australia.  I have found them extremely helpful in the past.
>
> Scott
>
> At 07:49 AM 12/1/00 -0800, you wrote:
> >I'm curious to know how many people using rainwater actually drink it,
and
> >what kind of treatment they use.
> >
> >We have a metal roof (colorbond) and a 5000-gallon concrete tank that we
use
> >for everything but drinking. Our well water sucks, so I'd like to begin
> >drinking the cistern water, but haven't sorted out all the many possible
> >treatment options.
> >
> >The other issue with the cistern is our wood stove. We haven't graduated
to
> >a masonry or other clean-burning stove yet, so the smoke wafts across the
> >roof, and imparts a faint smoky flavor (creosote?) to the water, which is
> >the main reason I'm not drinking it.
> >
> >Toby
> >
> >
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