Water purification

[John-in-KC 311]

"Paper Towels are not allowed, neither is bottled water."

 

In my neck of the woods, there's at least one weekend campground where there is no access to potable water. In fact, you have to bring your water with you!

 

Yes, I have used both chlorine and halazone tablets. I've boiled water too. I've also seen free chlorine go South below safe levels in the summertime in 5 gal cans, 55 gallon drums, and 400 gallon farm tanks. I don't like filters for group environments, they're expensive and their rate isn't all that fast.

 

So... you're at a dry (or at least non-potable) water camp. How does your Troop deal with it?

[Eagle92 110]

Only time I had that problem with my old troop was on a backpacking trip. Everyone was supposed to pack in 1 gallon of water, and we also had a pump. After realizing that not everyone brought their gallon, I made a side trip to the grocery store and bough a few gallons of water. Our campsite was somewhat close to the road, and on the way to drop off a car at the end, we stopped and hid the water I bought. We made everyone who didn't bring a gallon work the pump to learntheir lesson. After those who didn't follow directions spent soem time on

the pump, we found the water cache.

[Horizon 97]

Filters and tablets - only has been an issue when backpacking.

[gcnphkr 11]

We bring our own in 7 gal jugs (1 gal/person/day makes for a lot of water). Even if the free chlorine goes south there is little chance of a problem as long as there is no source for organics. The big nasties (Amoeba, Giardia, Cryptosporidium) are highly unlikely and you are much more likely to get something from the dust around the camp.

[packsaddle 753]

Theoretically, once the water has been completely disinfected, the disinfectant isn't necessary - it must be reinfected before it poses a hazard. But we use filtration and have never had a problem. I mostly just boil it, but that depends on how much crap I have to skim off the surface first. I am waiting to see how effective the UV light treatment is.

[Beavah 205]

Yah, spendin' a lot of time canoein' lakes and such. Boilin' is a given for any kind of cookin' but it's a nuisance for drinkin' water. I and most of the units I'm aware of use iodine in one form of another, either the PolarPure crystal stuff (by far da most economical if yeh use it a lot), or the tabs. A few have tried da funky two-part chlorine option which avoids the decay rate problem, but I haven't tried. I have tried the ozone thing since a buddy had one; kinda pesky and finicky.

 

Played with filters sometimes, especially when travelin' internationally. Hate the things. Bulky, pricey, slow, prone to clogging even when you're careful, and yeh have to be really careful not to contaminate da "clean" side of your filter.

 

Of all the newfangled gizmos, the one I like the most is the UV jobber. Fast, effective, economical in the long run and works on everything. Simpler to work than the filters without the need for cleaning and no risk of contamination. Probably not for kids, though. I expect the breakage or just plain "lost it" cost would be too high.

 

Other than that, when I'm out personally in an area I know well, I'm pretty familiar with what's reasonably safe and what isn't eh? So I confess I just drink da stuff straight up, though I don't let on to boys or other adult leaders. Water quality in the backcountry is fairly good in the U.S. if you're reasonably prudent and aren't on one of the backcountry tourist routes. Ain't ever been sick myself, though I did have a buddy get giardia from flippin' his canoe and gettin' a mouthful of water on an urban river once. Go figure! Of course, one might think I already have Beavah Feavah .

 

To be honest, though, the UV pens are so quick and easy that I've been treatin' my water more regularly these days.

 

Beavah

[EagleBeaver 10]

We use pump filters in the boundary waters and on backpacking trips. I like to keep the stuff from the water out of me, even if it is dead stuff. We've got chemicals also, just in case.

[Hal_Crawford 15]

I'm with Mn_scout. We use pumps with chemicals as a backup. With one pump for every 4 on trek we seem to be able to keep up with need and can survive a failure. We don't filter anything that we are going to boil anyway (cook water, wash water).

 

We avoid iodine as some people are allergic to it.

[kenk 11]

Though I myself have not used one, a lot of folks seem to like the Katadyn Base Camp filter. The'll fill it with one of those collapsable buckets (you can weight them down with a rock so they sink - you usually want to get water from a depth - rather than from the surface).

 

The recommendation is to pre-filter the water through a bandana or a coffee filter to remove the larger "chunks" and make the primary filter last longer.

 

It uses the same filter catridge as the Hiker Pro.

 

 

[Buffalo Skipper 13]

We have 3 Katadyn Hikers, one for each patrol, and several of our adults have the same unit. These are great little filters! You can fill a 1/liter bottle in under a minute. For a patrol of 5, that makes a gallon of water in 2-3 minutes. Not too time consuming. We have never had a problem with clogging, as we choose our sources to minimize scum. Anywhere we hike (or canoe) we generally have access to areas with relatively clean sources of water.

 

Never had any problems.

 

We also have an MSR--don't like it a bit. We bring it along, but only as an emergency backup, and have never had to use it. We carefully service all our filters before and after any trip.

[GernBlansten 10]

I use an MSR with polar pure tablets as a backup.

The MSR is fine for one or two people, but too slow for anymore and cloggs quickly. I guess that means its really filtering eh? I do like the ability to field clean it, where the Katadyn require a new cartridge.

I've seen the UV pen in action. Just seems wrong. I know it sterilizes but doesn't clarify the water.

 

We don't pump cooking water since we are boiling it.

[packsaddle 753]

My filter has the ceramic unit that can be cleaned and recleaned. I like it. But I only use if for personal needs and time is not a factor for me. I also use the 'prefilter' approach using a coffee filter or even a t-shirt. It helps. But I still boil most of it...night before, then let it cool for the coming day.

 

I was in Russia in 1995 working on a project in one of those 'closed' cities where the USSR had been producing weapons. My co-worker and I were the only two Americans in the entire city of about 500,000 and we stayed at one of those old 'resort' facilities that were built for each type of worker (I think we were in the one for pipe workers). Anyway we were working on their water supply lake and they were very proud of their micro-filtration system for the water supply. We were also involved with upgrading that system so after a couple of weeks we finally got a tour. The lake water basically was pumped over to this central treatment plant where it was filtered to remove impurities. The micro-filtration, it turned out, had a mesh size about the same as a window screen - and actually looked a bit like window screens. Sure enough, when I got back to my room I filled a glass, looked carefully, and once in a while could see zooplankton with my naked eye, LOL. I drank a lot of beer and vodka after that. But the lake was really clean with a well-protected watershed of Ural Mountains forest. After two weeks of drinking that water I still didn't have any problems so I didn't worry much. That was one of the best trips ever.

 

And...Russian women are breathtakingly beautiful...O - M - G!

[CRK7376 10]

I carry a Katadyn Hiker as do 2 other leaders in our troop. I also carry a Steripen UV filter. Got that at a military trade show for free! What deal. All I have to do is keep it in 4xAA batteries.

[HICO_Eagle 96]

We've been doing mostly car camping lately so we bring it with us but when backpacking I use a mixture of packing it in and a filter with iodine as an emergency backup. Iodine or PolarPure are great for killing obnoxious organics but won't get rid of chemicals or "floaties" as some of my boys called them.

[Gunny2862 11]

Have only had one "dry" camp experience with Scouting. Almost had another, but the mule was dead already and didn't seem to mind when we pumped from the SMALL pond(more casual water than pond) he was in....

Otherwise, we pump and filter everyone's water and for those who might have other issues(or mules in their source water) have a container of MSR Sweetwater solution (yeah I know it's just cut bleach). If hauling the Trailer then we have been known to have lots of water in 5 gallon jugs if we knew the water was "iffy" or possibly not going to be available.

 

There's not really an excuse for someone to not have started the trip with water - they DO carry the 10 essentials, right?

As far as the extra liter or two per person when backpacking or if you want to prevent having a dry camp - we put Dromedary bags on the PL's that they can then pass around their Patrol.