If you’re like me, having 300 gallons of water readily on hand is the stuff of prepper dreams. It is also something that I believe would be almost impossible to accomplish unless you had a couple of million dollars to spend on the necessary infrastructure (pumps, etc.) and land to store it all while maintaining quality control/cleanliness. Because of this, I believe a 300-gallon water storage tank (Aquatank) from USA Berkey filters is a must-have.
That said, 300-gallon tanks are hardly an unknown quantity among preppers today…and they certainly can’t go unnoticed when passing by them in garages or barns across America.
Preppers are an interesting lot, after all. So why have I set out to discover whether 300-gallon water storage tanks are necessary for preppers?
While 300 gallons of water might seem excessive, consider the fact that most municipal water sources in North America contain chlorine and fluoride as well as trace amounts of herbicides and pesticides from agricultural runoff (a recent NPR article stated that up to 6% of chemicals found in tap water can be leftover from pesticides used on crops). Furthering this idea is the growing concern about drought across large areas of the United States which could potentially result in a loss of some municipal drinking supplies or restrictions on state use due to limited availability.
For these reasons, 300 gallons seems like a good minimum when you consider potential outages from disaster or government mismanagement. 300 gallons is 300 days of water for one person. That’s a lot of water to go without, so it’s important that you have some idea of your own emergency measures should tap water be unavailable for any length of time.
For the purpose of this article, we will assume that 300 days worth of bottled water would cost around $1400 ($5/day times 300). This seems like a reasonable figure when you consider the fact that 300 gallons weighs about 880 pounds, which could make long-distance transportation an issue (you wouldn’t want to spend over $10 in gas just to move your 300-gallon backup supply) or if you live in a city where 300 bottles might not fit in the trunk of your car. On the other hand, a 300-gallon Aquatank is only $294, and filling it with rainwater is free. Also, 300 gallons of rainwater weighs less than 300 bottles of water (about 300 pounds as opposed to 880 pounds).
If you are concerned about sanitation and the possibility of contracting a disease such as cholera or dysentery from dirty drinking water, there is no reason why you couldn’t fill your 300-gallon Aquatank with filtered tap water and use it for all your needs. During most disasters, municipal governments do not lose their ability to treat tap water; they simply don’t have enough resources to keep up with demand in an emergency situation. If you can still turn on the spigot and get clean running water into your bathtub or shower, then that’s what the 300-gallon tank should be used for. It is also important to factor in refilling your tank into the overall readiness plan. For this, we recommend a gravity-fed filtration system like a Big Berkey system.
With 300 gallons of freshwater, you could have access to safe drinking water for almost one year. For a 300 gallon tank, we usually recommend placing it in a plastic or metal shed outside the house as these tanks are heavy and can cause damage to your foundation should they be placed inside a home instead of an outbuilding. 300 Gallon Water storage is ideal for providing a clean source for drinking, food washing, and general cleaning purposes. 300 gallons of emergency water isn’t much good if you cannot carry it into your home if there’s no plumbing available When all grid goes down running water may not be available unless you have your own means of generating electricity and a well. Those 300 gallons of water will be good for drinking, washing hands, flushing toilets, and cleaning dishes. 300 Gallon tank of emergency water is a great way to stay prepared in the event of an emergency or natural disaster. For those reasons, we believe everyone should have at least 300 gallons of water, per family member on hand at all times. 300-gallon water tanks can be found at most all hardware stores and it’s not an expensive thing to obtain, especially if you go with a 300-gallon aquatank.
