UV light is the thing nobody talks about with stored water, and its why your drums might be fine even when the jugs were not. Sunlight through the thin milk jug plastic feeds algae and breaks down the plastic over time, but those opaque blue drums block light completely so nothing can grow in there. A cheap way to test without opening the barrel is to pull a small sample from the pump spout into a clear glass and hold it up to a light, looking for cloudiness or anything floating. You can also drop a pool test strip in that sample to check pH and chlorine, since water sitting for months can go flat and pick up a weird taste even when its safe. The real trick is to pump a little out every couple months and top the drum back up, because moving water stays fresher than water that just sits there. That small habit would have saved your tax papers too, since you would have caught the jug leak way earlier.

Mall kiosk kid gets it cause he actually watches what people do. B2B blogs never see who bounces. Just write like a person talking to a person.