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Testing Water Filters/Purifiers in the field


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This season I've added the following to my kit...a water test kit for heavy metals, chemicals and pesticides; and, an e coli test kit to ensure that my purifier is doing it's job when it has reached it's half way point, and at three fourths of it's useful lifespan. Any postive results at these stages, and the filter is replaced....

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Could you post a link to the test kits

 

I have drank from a few streams and just wondered........While they were remote most of the areas we backpack in are reclaimed......So you never know what is in the water.

In reclaimed areas suspect traces of mercury, PCB's and dioxins from coal powered plants, and logging operations. If the watershed is being farmed, pesticides and herbicides. In rural areas using out house and septic systems, fecal contamination. Same goes for cattle, hogs and chicken farms, as well as growth hormones and antibiotics. For cities and suburbs, heavy metals such as copper (vehicles braking system), as well as those chemicals used in lawn care products which don't break down.....maybe the best way to put it is that every creek, stream, river, lake, or waterway in this country is polluted...there are no exceptions...expect to see higher levels with fraking.....
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Could you post a link to the test kits

 

I have drank from a few streams and just wondered........While they were remote most of the areas we backpack in are reclaimed......So you never know what is in the water.

KDD swing by I will serve you some non thermometer cooked chicken and a big glass of filtered water from the reclaimed strip mine pit drain creek.....

 

Thats right your Troop probably doesn't backpack or do anything that would require them to be away from a shower or city water for more than a couple of hours.

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fracking is going on where we backpack and more than a few communities have lost their well water....... The best news story is of a guy turning on his kitchen sink spigot and lighting it on fire. The thing that worries me is the proprietary mix of liquids they inject into the wells to actually fracture the shale. How do you know that a spring that you have been drinking from for years isn't contaminated.

 

http://www.allenstewart.com/practice-areas/gas-property-damage/chemicals-used-in-fracking/

 

Big sigh, So the first alert kit will test for most of the bad stuff for $13 and then you need the pesticide kit for another $14. So if your backpacking multiple days you better have at least one of each kit per day......

 

Like I said there have been marked springs on the maps where we backpack, I wonder if they are safe, Guess a call to the land manager to find out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Could you post a link to the test kits

 

I have drank from a few streams and just wondered........While they were remote most of the areas we backpack in are reclaimed......So you never know what is in the water.

yeah, and in the pristine north backwoods as far away as you can get, going back in time to the preindustrial age, you still had

fecal contamination..... fish, birds, bear, etc..... and who knows what leaching out of all of those mineral containing rocks.

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It looks like those bacteria test take 48 hours and at least one of the other tests had a sit time of 24 hours. How are you using those in the back country? Or are you just counting on your filters?
I carry enough safe water in the canoe to last for several days.... when those sources are exhausted then I'll switch over to the purifier. If there's only bacteria to be concerned with, I'll save the filter and use the pressure cooker to sterilize water....as always, before heading out I'll do a bit of homework to find out what is not only in the river, but also the watershed. This way I know what test/s to stock the kit with.....
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