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“I think that water storage in the trash cans/bags would still come in handy for washing dishes/clothes/hands, flushing toilets, etc. You wouldn’t have to worry about contamination for those jobs.”

I guess we think differently here. I come from the pesticide world. Companies in that business know certain products are perfectly safe for humans, but now they have to also PROVE that they’re safe, no different than drug makers. So they simply stopped marketing them, rather than go through the expense, and now we have an explosion of bed bugs.

I have serious doubts as to whether short-term storage in bags that come out of the factory in sterile condition are a threat. I realize that, over time, and especially given warmer temperatures, chemicals can (and probably will) leach out. But I suspect those chemicals are unknowns (rather than toxins), especially in the microscopic quantities that we’re talking, and also because short of ingesting dioxin, we really don’t know much about what causes cancer and what does not (in other words, I wouldn’t be surprised if some of today’s “safe plastics” get proven otherwise in the next couple of decades).

But even so, you guys have made me think a bit and one thing I will not do is fill up bags and then store them for months (or years) expecting to have perfect water. So I’ll fill them when the time comes and then either use them in short order, or empty and refill again. But I will still use them, since I have about 100 gallons of capacity and I’m not about to let that capability go unused.

In the end, hopefully, we can keep clean water flowing and this will all go away, but in the meantime...

Don’t get me wrong! I don’t think I’d have a problem using the water stored this way at all. Actually, I think it is very smart. I mentioned it to my husband right away since we have a couple of containers that aren’t being used. I was just considering other uses for the water for those that might worry about stuff like that. Thank you for the suggestion!