Recently I was thinking about what would happen if there was a major emergency here and what problems that would present. I thought of how I have a basement with water constantly coming in - the sump pump typically runs every few minutes! If I lose electricity, I have a battery backup, but of course it won't last a very long time (plan to do some testing to see exactly how long it will last). So if I lose both pumps, I'd be afraid of flooding and structural damage to the house. Then it dawned on me that all the water coming in could be a "blessing in disguise". I do have bottled water stored, but if there was an emergency lasting weeks I could run out. But what if I could drink the water coming into the sump? Hell, there's probably enough to cover a good section of my subdivision for drinking! So what do you think? It is freshwater, right? The water is clear. I have Katadyn Micropur tablets to purify it. I am waiting for a water test kit to arrive for my city water and plan to use it on the sump water as well.

On a related note, if you have 60 bottles of water but only enough tablets for 30 bottles (using the ratio suggested by the instructions), and anticipate needing all of the water, would you use the tablets at half strength or leave half of the water untreated?