Water

[PissedOffAmerican]

Hey guys! Was wondering if anyone has any knowledge about water filters/pitchers and what's good quality. On a side note, will boiling water remove flouride?

 

[Roninsensei]

Distilling it can reduce it but not fully remove it.

 

[Brent S]

Berkey gravity filters are simple, tough, and reusable for a really long time. My advice is have a good one like this at home, then get a couple more smaller portable ones for backups. Water is the number one thing that can take you out of the game.

 

[bigpaul]

all sources of water unless it comes from the mains should be treated as suspicious.
even in the good times factories are letting chemicals and effluent into our rivers, contamination is leaking from farmland into the water courses, only an idiot would not treat their water first before drinking it.

 

[Squirtgunsquirter]

I don't have one, but from what I've read, the Berkey with the PF2 filter is the one to get.

 

[Kevin L]

I have several different styles of filters.

I have a Katadyn filter with a ceramic element that is good (with proper maintence) for 13,000 gallons.

I have a few life straws, I also have a few Sawyer filters.

Everyone should know how to make a transpiration still with a plastic bag, string, and a clean pebble (see earlier post for photos). Everyone should also know how to make a solar still with plastic sheeting and aquarium tubing.

I also store bottled water, and I store tincture of iodine and pool shock.

I learned my lessons about water after Hurricane Andrew. In the U.S., we actually had ameobic dysentary. Kids got sick from water-borne diarrheal illness, and so on.

During the last hurricane, I watched someone pull a blade over the last bottled water on the store shelf.

No one got hurt, but it emphesized and validated my priorities with regards to water.

I actually gave away bottled water to my neighbors during the aftermath, and it helped my morale to be generous.

A very efficient, cost-effective way to store water for a hurricane is to take large plastic Rubbermade storage containers, and fill them up from the tap before the storm. If using this water for hygiene, add a small amount of bleach and keep the container covered.

If saving it for drinking, do not add bleach. Just keep it covered, and use a filter when drinking it, as the water may get stale with time. Pouring it from one container to another before drinking it will aereate the water and improve the taste.

Filter water for your pets. My girlfriend's little dog--even though worthless for a guard dog since she's a tiny maltese-poodle cross--was an excellent alarm system...very relevant when there's no electricity, no phones, and no police.

No one could get near the house without her letting me know (loudly), and I could greet the visitor with my 9mm Browning Hi-Power discretely concealed on my person.

My cat was even valuable and deserved water for practical purposes. Several small snakes, lizards, and roaches got into my house when I brought in all my lawn furniture, garbage pails, and plants...so kitty entertained himself by ruthlessly hunting the vermin down.

I didn't have any venomous snakes in my house (that I know of), but there easily might have been. We have coral snakes, pygmie rattlers, and so on down here.

Water ties into so many aspects of our existence that it doesn't become apparent until it's in short supply.

 

[Arcticdude]

I keep a Sawyer mini filter in my grab and go bag. After I bought it I tried it out in some cloudy water. It seemed to work fine. The majority of mountain creeks, springs and lakes around here are clean during the summer, fall and winter. And I don't hesitate to drink directly from them. With spring runoff they can get a little muddy at times.

 

[bigpaul]

I keep a Sawyer mini filter in my grab and go bag. After I bought it I tried it out in some cloudy water. It seemed to work fine. The majority of mountain creeks, springs and lakes around here are clean during the summer, fall and winter. And I don't hesitate to drink directly from them. With spring runoff they can get a little muddy at times.

i might have drunk from moorland streams here 20 years ago but not now.
anything could be in it, could be a dead animal upstream.

 

[Brent S]

I am certain of one thing, during an event or emergency, diarrhea and vomiting can take you out of the game. DO NOT drink untreated water. I know people that will spend up to a grand on a rifle, but won’t waste the money on a good water filter. The filter will keep you alive longer.

 

[bigpaul]

water is more important to life than even food.

 

[Brent S]

I don't have one, but from what I've read, the Berkey with the PF2 filter is the one to get.

I’m sure those filters are good, but wonder about the longevity of any cartridge filter. I have eight ceramic ones and four charcoal ones. The charcoal ones will only do so much water before becoming ineffective, but the ceramic can be scrubbed and used over and over. The longevity was the reason I chose it. The bad side to the ceramic is it’s brittle and can break if dropped, (which is why I got extras). With the cartridge filters I would consider getting some spares since you don’t know how many people, and animals, you may be providing drinking water for. Also another thing that will greatly increase their life is rig up a pre filter to catch as much particulate as you can before filtering the water. Even a few cotton tee shirts will stop a lot of small particles from clogging you filter prematurely.

 

[Squirtgunsquirter]

Here the Sawyer mini's work for 1 camping season, then I have to squeeze so hard I just get new ones. Tried backflushing, but then you seem to have to do it all the time.

Lot's of tannins in the river, but the water is very clear otherwise. Most of the streams are so so. Lot's of farming, and the runoff and chemicals that go with it.

I typically filter with the Sawyer, then boil. Unless I am right at the source of a spring, and I am sure there isn't a pond right up the hill or something, then I will drink it.

 

[Kevin L]

Except for a few springs up north, I never drink untreated water.

I've even heard (from my grandfather) that people have become horribly ill from drinking fresh spring water at the source because there was a cemetary nearby.

 

[Brent S]

Except for a few springs up north, I never drink untreated water.

I've even heard (from my grandfather) that people have become horribly ill from drinking fresh spring water at the source because there was a cemetary nearby.

You never know what was buried 80 or 100 years ago. Not to mention a dead animal, animal droppings, etc. good advice is always filter water. Even in a place as pristine as arctic is, if you’re several miles from home and get severe direaha and cramps getting back could prove to be tough. In any shtf situation it could too easily be a death sentence.

 

[Kevin L]

I agree with you Brent.

Buried things can, evidentally, cause groundwater problems for decades.

It's considered a war crime and a crime against humanity (according to the Geneva Convention) to poison wells in warfare.

This happened in the past when soldiers would dump dead bodies down wells so that the well would be unfit to provide water to guerrillas.

The only problem is that a dead body can render a well and nearby wells unsafe for up to 20 years, so this unnecessarily impacts poverty-stricken non-combatant civilians who may need to rely on the well for survival.

 

[Brent S]

I agree with you Brent.

Buried things can, evidentally, cause groundwater problems for decades.

It's considered a war crime and a crime against humanity (according to the Geneva Convention) to poison wells in warfare.

This happened in the past when soldiers would dump dead bodies down wells so that the well would be unfit to provide water to guerrillas.

The only problem is that a dead body can render a well and nearby wells unsafe for up to 20 years, so this unnecessarily impacts poverty-stricken civilians who may need to rely on the well for survival.

Human beings can and have been really vile. The cemetery thing is a real concern. A lot of the embalming fluids used over the last century were really poisonous. Just recently have they started using concrete vaults to slow down the chemicals leaching into the groundwater, but even those won’t be watertight forever, why they don’t outlaw the nasty chemicals is beyond me.

 

[Kevin L]

Human beings can and have been really vile. The cemetery thing is a real concern. A lot of the embalming fluids used over the last century were really poisonous. Just recently have they started using concrete vaults to slow down the chemicals leaching into the groundwater, but even those won’t be watertight forever, why they don’t outlaw the nasty chemicals is beyond me.

I agree.

If it was up to me, cremation would be universal...with a few exception like donating the body to science, or cryonics where the person is frozen.

For me, I would rather have my survivors donate money to cancer research in my name rather than an ostentatious funeral with an expensive headstone.

 

[bigpaul]

no headstone for me, wife and I are going for woodland burials.

 

[jontte]

what I don't understand is;you put the corps in a box,bury it,then why the hell do you have to embalm it?? it's maggot food after you close the pit with dirt.

 

[Kevin L]

what I don't understand is;you put the corps in a box,bury it,then why the hell do you have to embalm it?? it's maggot food after you close the pit with dirt.

I don't understand either.

I believe it might be a form of denial. I think the reasoning (if we want to call it that) is that the loved ones feel like they're--somehow--protecting their loved one by delaying the slow destruction of the body...just like how you protect your kid from burning him/herself.

I think it's a way of denying the realities of death.

This is why I have a major problem with the funeral business, and see it as a corrupt field.

The only legitimate purpose of embalming (as far as I can see), is when it's a requirement when bodies cross international boundaries.

An embalmed body can't transmit rare, tropical diseases (like yellow fever, malaria, or ebola), and embalming protects the public in the receiving country.