I have 1500 gals. of swimming pool water in my back yard. What I would like to know is. Is the water save to drink for over an extended period?

I might add that the water is clear and cleaned with clorine, and there is no junk in the pool.

My guess, and it is just a guess, is that if you only used clorine it would probably be OK. But if other chemicals are used all bets are off. I think that I would prefer to use it for cleaning, high temp cooking, things like that, but if push comes to shove I would drink it...

Actually the salt is used to make chlorine, like the MSR MIOX device, but on a larger scale. In large pools this methode is prefered, because this methode does not requite chlorine transports.

If you only have chlorine in your pool then the chlorine can be neutralised with tablets.

That way you would only neutralise what you needed and the treated water would stay in the pool.

Thankfully we no longer have a pool, but over twenty years of tending one makes me wary of what goes in one! In addition to chlorine products, I remember adding algaecides of various types and a number of products to increase or reduce the PH. It seemed we were constantly adding chemicals to make something "right." It is inevitable that swimmers would swallow some water, so I guess a little would not kill you, but no way would I want to drink it routinely except in an extreme emergency.

A pool might be big enough to create some type of solar still with it, but the deeper it is, the harder it's going to be to get water to evaporate. It is too big a resource to pass up planning on using it.

why not just use a good waterfilter with a activated carbon core? Should take out most of the chemicals, is reasonable quick and not much of a hassle.

Local public health departments and some independent labs will test water for bacterial and chemical contamination and pronounce the source potable(or not).

Might be sensible to test your swimming pool water, water from your sump pump, and water from the nearest stream in preparation for use as a backup water source. In my experience, pools collect a lot of nastiness from the environment: bird poop, rodents, reptiles, dogs, cattle, acid rain, engine exhaust particulates, deodorant, sun screen...it is considerably easier to remove the bacteria than to remove the cows.That said, most of the rest of the world depends on water sources much more questionable than the pool.

After the cow fell in, we built a better fence.

Ok Nursemike, I have to ask. How did you get the cow out of the pool?

Thanks for reminding me of all those other nasties. I've also found dead rats, snakes (alive), dead baby rabbits, birds, and insects galore. No cows though!

I don't recall ever seeing a credible source say that drinking pool water "straight" was OK, particularly long term. I have only seen warnings to not drink pool water. You're not going to drop dead from drinking a mouthfull of it, although the pH and chemicals will likely irritate your GI tract and then you'll end up dehydrated because of vomiting or diarrhea, depending on how much you drink. There is also a lot of sodium in most pool water (just from the chemicals, not the salt in "salt water" pools), which will cause other problems. It's just not right for drinking.

Your average activated carbon filter probably does not filter out pool chemicals to any great degree. From a personal kit standpoint, I don't think anything short of RO or distillation would effectively get rid of the pool chemicals.