ALTERNATIVE WATER STORAGE

A water storage plan that almost everybody can do and build, not very expensive and you can buy what you need perhaps all in one place

 It is a pool of water made with hay bales or the straw bales would be cheaper and some plastic/poly tarps. and several contractor size plastic bags, some 2x4sx8s boards, you do not have to worry about the grade. You could install this in most backyards. The 2x4sx8s will be used as stakes to hold the bales in place. 

 This type of pool is very easy to make. Use at least 6 to 8 bales per side and maybe 6 bales wide or more if you have room, if it’s much bigger the pressure of the water will be too much for the bales to hold in place. However, it will hold 100s of gallons.

 You need to find a very level section of ground, and get rid of any rocks or sticks so they will not poke holes in the tarp. I would lay down a heavy poly tarp as my ground sheet and then check it for

any objects that might poke through the tarp. To make your straw bales ready, you must put a contractors’ bag over the whole bale, it might take two of them from each end, tie them off to make them secure. They cannot get wet if you have extra, double them up. Arrange the bales in a rectangle and then walk around and form the plastic into the bottom edges. You need to establish the shape of the interior pool, flop any extra plastic up and over the bales. Now put down a pool or pond tarp, you want the least amount of stress on the pool liners, and overlap the corners.  Whatever is extra flop his over the bales as well. There should be enough to reach and have enough slack all around. Tuck that extra under the bales. Now comes the hardest part, cut the 2X4sX8s in half and make a point. Drive the stakes about two feet into the ground that will leave you about 2 feet above the bales, my suggestion is to have at least a stake at each end of the bale around one foot in from the end. To keep the water

clean use a bleach formula of about 16 drops per gallon. You are going to end up with about 2 thousand gallons so the bleach can be poured in using the quart’s size bottles, about two of them will do the trick. If your pool is 16 x 12 x 1 ½’, that is a lot of water, cover the top with more plastic and tie it down on the upright stakes very taut so that water does not settle on the top and get into your pool. You will have to experiment a little to get it right. Even though you have taken safe guards to keep your water pure I would boil it before use or use a Big Berkey type of filter to ensure it is safe. I cannot be there to guide you, so this is at your own risk.

 This plan is by memory and have not done this in over 60 years, I do not think I missed a step, but once you have the idea it will be self-evident as you build the pool. This could be setup to catch rain water as well. Be sure you have some PVC pipe to retrieve the water or a hand pump of some kind, even if all you have are a few buckets they will do.  

 by Dude McLean