I managed to get about 15 barrels that held hydrochloric acid (muriatic) for swimming pools that hold 30 gallons each. Once they are rinsed out thoroughly, I would trust them to hold potable water. I just leave the water in them for a long time and then throw it out (like the chemist recommended) so I could put potable water in them. Of course, I do have 3 wells and a 1000 gal rainwater cistern and a large 10' deep stock pond so I am not TOO concerned about water in terms of having it. Using the water is probably more the issue. If you are concerned about any water you have, you CAN make it potable with a number of different methods. The first and easiest is the chlorine bleach method which will kill everything in the water (assuming it is in there) and do a very credible job.
The other way to do this if you can't get chlorine bleach is to make an eluting chamber with activated charcoal (cowboy charcoal works well, not charcoal briquets soaked with chemicals) Crush the charcoal up into very fine powder and put it into a 4 inch PVC pipe (unless you have a glass chamber/cylinder) to run it through.
If you make a chamber with sterilized sand inside an old nylon stocking to start with and then put the charcoal filter in line after that, you will get a pretty good water specimen that you should be able to drink. Of course, heating the water to a boil before letting it pass through these two chambers will pretty much assure you of bacteriologic safety as well as taking out a lot of chemicals with the charcoal.
Of course it is really easy to go buy some filters at Sears or wherever you shop for the first chambers now while they are still available and reasonably cheap. You might spend a total of $50 to get some large plastic chambers and some filters, but the cost right now is negligible when compared to needing it in the future. I made a water purification tool to take camping with me by putting two of the big "whole house" filter chambers in line, one with a particulate filter and the next with a purification filter. It hooks up to a hose and can be put in line anywhere you can hook up a hose. I am NOT afraid to drink water after it comes through my filter system no matter where I go.
If you want to feel a little more safe get some brita filters and keep them handy. I bought some and put them in a sealed bag (vacuum sealer) and set them aside after I discovered the fact that they work really well. I used to keep a bottle of water on the sink for drinking but noted after a while that it "grew things" and had a slimy layer inside the bottle after a while, but when I put water from a Brita filter in it and left it for long periods of time, none of that happened, so I now have a bunch of them for "travel" purposes.
In either case, the more actions you take to purify water, the less you have to store. Knowing HOW to purify water is by far and away more useful than carrying it around since it weighs quite a bit.. Carry your dry goods and find/purify you water insitu is a much better option when on the road.
Of course there are different uses of water and some folks actually re-cycle all the water from their house (gray water) not black water. This can be used for garden purposes etc. Dish water probably has quite a bit of unwanted detergent, etc. in it but shower water is almost completely clean and useful for gardening.
Trim sends
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Food grade containers are the best, of course, but the industrial ones are usually easier to get a hold of.
