Water Treatment

[bsmit212]

With so many different water treatment methods out there, is any one of them more affective and/or healthier for you than others. And by healthier I am referring more to like long time use of the chlorine drops, for example, cause you to get sick or health issue down the road?

[Grandpa]

The problems to obtain clean water come from so many different directions. Inorganic constituents, such as heavy metals, Micro-biological, Pesticides, volatile organics and radiological such as radon 222. A person needs to look at those problems likely to be encountered on any given trip. Even then, some of these problems are difficult to remove, shy of complete distillation.

Boiling and chemical treatments will kill the biological entities but do nothing for most of the other problems. Even in high mountain springs, water may contain naturally occurring inorganics such as arsenic or radiologicals such as radon. To simply "filter" the water is not enough to remove these inorganics or even some of the biological viruses.

In my opinion, the safest method and simplist is an Iconic Adsorption filter system which uses activated carbon to attract and hold pathogens as well as filtering to a fine degree. Seychelle, Katadyne, MSR all use such systems. They don't just "filter". Steri-pens, aquamira drops, or any of the other chemical treatments just don't do anything to alleviate the non biological impurities.

[wvbreamfisherman]

Chlorine has been used for many years as a disinfectant, as has iodine. Aside from issues with iodine and thyroid, I'm not aware that either would make you ill from either short-term or long term use.

That said, I just came back from a 7-day hike on the AT and used only a Katadyn Hiker water filter. I generally use filtration fopr what I will use fairly soon, whereas for water I'll have stored for a while I use Aquamira tablets, since they will have time to kill the bugs (if any).

I talked to a number of thru-hikers when I was out and it was about 50/50 between filter users and those who didn't use anything (or at least that's what they said, anyhow).

[wvbreamfisherman]

Referring to Grandpa's comment. I'm not particularly worried about Radon, since I believe that the numbers used to establish safe Radon exposures are grossly exaggerated.

They were developed studying Uranium miners, who had massive peak exposures to not only Radon, but other radionuclides.

Most places in the east (unless disturbed by mining), or surface contamination, heavy metals are also not a real problem, especially for short term exposure. Organic contaminants can be handled with activated carbon.

Personally I'd rank risks as follows: Bacteria > Parasites >> Viruses >> Heavy Metals, and organic contaminants (outside of pesticides from treated fields) >> Radioactives.

This is for most of the Eastern US. Local conditions might vary siginficantly- ask locals or do some research if need be.

[Michael]

Good points above. The take-home is that looking for a one size fits all solution is often simplistic. Every product has strengths and weaknesses, and you're best off with the product that best fits your local needs.

In my area, for example, you're generally fine boiling or treating with chemicals. That's because wee critters are our number one concern. So if you're careful to kill them, the water's good to go.

But that's definitely not the case everywhere. In some places, that'd be a really good way to get some sort of heavy metal or petrochemical poisoning.

[Gondor]

I generally will use water filter to filter all the nasty stuff from the water. If I'm not sure the water is relatively clean I will add a few tablets of Chlorine-Dioxide after filtering.

[Barney]

Water filter is what I will always use. I can't remember when I used water purification tablets. But in the case of some disasters you may want to have these at your side.

[Pathfinder1]

Hi...


A reverse osmosis filter also works well on most contaminants. However, I have only seen them used for domestic use, and cannot verify the effectiveness of any made for portable use.

[wvbreamfisherman]

Re Reverse Osmosis- I'm not aware of any man (or woman) portable units. You need a pretty high pressure to force water through the R.O. membrane, and I expect that any hand pump that develops that sort of pressure will have very low volume.

Might be wrong- new stuff comes out all the time.

[Grandpa]

After all I have said above, I stick with my katadyne hiker pro. It will remove all but the smallest virus' and much of the heavy metals. The bad stuff like PCB's etc still have some pass by but for all intents and purposes, it and the Seychelle's and the MSR's are the all round best. I have a listing from Seychelle on their iconic adsorbtion system showing percentages of removal if anyone is interested. Katadynes and MSR's rates are about the same. Chemical treatment is good only for biological.