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  • From: Jody Troupe <jodyt2@mac.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Rainwater - distilled water - ok for only source ofwater?
  • Date: Tue, 20 May 2008 23:16:19 -0400

Thanks Nick & Kate for the rainwater comments. That's exactly the info I was looking for!

JodyT



On May 20, 2008, at 7:33 PM, Nick Ritar wrote:

I've spent almost all my life living in places that rely on rainwater as
their SOLE source of drinking water. In rural Australia this is very common.
Indeed visitors relish the opportunity to drink pure, fresh rainwater, often
taking bottles home to the city.

*I would always prefer to use rainwater for drinking than groundwater or
water piped from some large communal reservoir or treatment plant.*

Groundwater is much more susceptible to pollution than rainwater, any
chemical pesticide, fertilizer, heavy metal, industrial pollutant, natural
radioactive isotopes etc etc etc that hits the surface of the earth WILL
make it's way into the groundwater.

Municipal water supplies are often just as suspect, they typically collect
rainwater or groundwater, store it in huge centralized reservoirs, treat it
with toxic chemicals, add other chemicals "for your health" and then pipe it
through hundreds of miles of poorly maintained pipes.

At least with rainwater YOU are in control of your water.

The only caveats I would put on drinking rainwater collected from your roof
are;

- don't collect water off a roof coated with a toxic substance like tar
- be cautious if you live in an area with a lot of heavy industry or next
to a busy highway (although lead is less of a problem than it was)
- if air pollution is a problem in your area then install a first flush
device to divert the first couple of gallons into your garden

The rain itself is not usually the main source pollution that ends up in
your rainwater tank/cistern, it's the particulate pollution that collects on
your roof in the months/weeks/days between rain events. A first flush device
will divert the first few gallons of "suspect" water, until your roof has
been washed clean.

If you are worried about the quality of the water in your tanks you can
always send them off to a lab for analysis.

Often one of the biggest concerns that people have is the fact that their
rainwater tank/cistern hosts a large number of living organisms. Just like
any other natural environment, your rainwater tank will provide a home for a
bunch of different bacteria, micro-flora, algae and micro-fauna. Just like
any other healthy, living ecosystem, the key to ensuring no individual
organisms population grows to dangerous levels is maintain a high level of
biodiversity.

We do this by having a large (usually about 2 feet/60cm wide) hole in the
top of the tank that is exposed to the atmosphere. This hole is covered with
mesh screen to ensure no leaves or large animals can find their way into the
tank. The hole allows a wide diversity of tiny critters from the environment
as well as oxygen and sunlight to enter the tank. This ensures that all the
niche environments in the tank are filled and there are no opportunities for
the nasty critters to build to dangerous numbers.

If you follow those simple steps and inspect your tank every few months to
ensure everything is looking ok then you will never look back. The first
time you drink your own beautiful fresh rainwater is like eating veggies
from your own garden for the first time. It will give you a sense of
security, independence and the knowledge that you are genuinely improving
your families health.

Collecting rainwater for drinking is a fundamental permaculture act. It is
good for the earth, by reducing the energy and infrastructure required to
supply clean water. It makes communities more resilient by decentralizing
our most important resource and it's fundamentally better for human health.

Nick


life - http://www.milkwood.net
work - http://www.milkwoodpermaculture.com.au
art - http://www.cicada.tv

phone - 02 6373 7763
mobile - 0407 194 593





On Wed, May 21, 2008 at 4:23 AM, Kate Halstead <rockyprairie@earthlink.net >
wrote:

Many folks in and around the city of Ketchikan Alaska have had to rely on
roof catchment systems and cisterns for all their household water for
years.
Never heard of any problems other than what happens in years of low
rainfall, then they have to rely on trucked in water that's then deposited
in their cisterns. I'd think there might be more issues from air- borne
particulate pollution ending up in the cisterns and thus in folks' bodies
than from rainwater, which isn't really distilled water, it definitely has
'stuff' in it.

Seems to me there are also villages in the seacoast mountains of Chile that
rely solely on mist nets to supply their drinking water. Can't imagine but
what there are many more examples around the planet of folk's subsisting on
either rainfall or collected dew as the majority of their drinking water.

Kate

-----Original Message-----
From: permaculture-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:permaculture-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Jody Troupe
Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 10:18 AM
To: permaculture
Subject: [permaculture] Rainwater - distilled water - ok for only source
ofwater?

Hello all-

Just throwing out a question that has come up on another discussion board.
I'm following an ongoing disagreement about the use of distilled water as a
sole source of drinking water (does it leach minerals, etc.)

Of the people that choose to use water catchment systems, its stands to
reason that there might be some that have to use that rain water
exclusively
as their water source (no well potential, no piped water, no bottled).
Would
relying on rain water as your only source of water actually be a problem?
Its naturally distilled.

Or, I've seen some designs for sun water distillers for countries that have
no access to clean water sources. They can distill their own water with
this
sort of Teepee-looking thing, but again, it would be distilled water.

Does anyone have a comment, or have any actual experience with this?
Doesn't it seem weird that naturally distilled water would be bad for a
person? For some, it might their only source of drinking water.

Thanks,
JodyT
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--
nick ritar

life - http://www.milkwood.net
work - http://www.milkwoodpermaculture.com.au
art - http://www.cicada.tv

phone - 02 6373 7763
mobile - 0407 194 593
--
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