drinking stream water

[dolfan]

I have a stream where i live at and was wondering about drinking the water from it. It is not deep or wide sofar from what i have seen. It is at the smallest part wide wise is about a foot to maybe 2 feet and barely covers your foot to maybe 6 inches deep. I know to goto the deepest part to get water. What about leaves,limbs etc in the water. Can i boil it and it should be fine? Sorry if this is not the place for this topc thanks

[canid]

You can drink from just about any water course with fish and animals still living in it and some without, as long as you disinfect it by heat, mechanical or chemical means.

From some of those contaminated with many common environmental pollutants, it might not be a good idea to drink from them often, or in some cases not at all, outside of an emergency. A few of these poilluants can be removed by boiling down, or by distillation, or by mechanical or chemical means, but aside from perhaps the boiling and the distilling, these are not likely to be methods ready to hand.

[sticker]

never drink from any stream with out disinfecting, better to be safe than sick as a dog.

[1stimestar]

While boiling will kill bacteria, it can also concentrate pestacides/heavy metal types of things. Filtering is probably the safest if you can't distill it.

[canid]

Boiling water down can do so. When you disinfect water by boiling, do you generally find yourself boiling half or more of it away?

Assuming a pollutant which is not a volatile organic compound with a lower boiling point than water, this is what would be required to double the concentration. Unless you are at a rather high altitude, merely bringing it to a boil, and even holding it there breifly is not likely to loose your more than a single digit percent of it's volume, and hence, is not going to result in an appreciably elevated concentration.

In the event that it is a volatile of the nature mentioned, boiling would reduce the concentration. It really comes down to the contaminate in question.

[Mozartghost1791]

Maybe there are some locations close to old mining operations and the like that would have dangerous chemicals deep in the wilderness.... Or also if it is a plot of evergreens that is to be clear cut (they spray it with pesticides)... Other than that I don't know how many man-made chemicals are going to be found where you will be in a survival situation... Frogs and salamanders are better indicators of the (chemical) water quality than fish. If there are healthy frogs there, or especially if there are salamanders, you can pretty much bet that the water is chemically safe to drink. Of course, there is no reliable indicator that the water is biologically safe, but dangerous bacteria and protists have a hard time living in rapids or extremely fast streams.

[Mouser]

It depends, I've only drank out of one 'stream' in GA, but that was because I was at the crest of a mountain.

Any where you have livestock/fecal matter that can get into what you are drinking...then stay clear.

I might add that the 'virus' warnings in Appalachia is horse ****.

Bacterium you have to worry about, viruses, non existent

http://i48.tinypic.com/5waa1.jpg

[Cast-Iron]

I drank routinely from area creeks and streams in my youth without boiling, filtering, or treating the water. I don't recall ever becomming ill as a result. Would I do that today knowing what I know now? Probably not, unless it was a legitimate matter of survival. If this stream is where you live, why not collect a sample and have it tested for contaminants/pollutants? Then you would have a better idea of what it would take to make it a safe source of drinking water. My guess is simply boiling the water would make it safe, but a water test would remove all doubt. Even some shallow wells are now contaminated as a result of agriculture and industrial practices not to mention the lack of or deteriorated well casings.

[KhonHd]

While boiling will kill bacteria, it can also concentrate pestacides/heavy metal types of things. Filtering is probably the safest if you can't distill it.

Filtering won't necessarily kill everything. It all depends on the filter...

Proper boiling, for all practical purposes, won't increase the concentrations pesticides/heavy metals. Since all that is required is to bring it to a boil. Sure, when they issue boil water orders they say boil for 1 minute. But actually by the time the water reaches 100°C (212°F) the nasties have been killed off...

[ubercrow]

The most common problem people get have around here the rocky mountains is a intestinal parasites called giardia it usually comes from animal feces and can occur even in springs. A marmot at 11,000ft defecates on the snow pack and it flows under ground and comes out in a spring at 9,000ft. As someone else was saying you can also get mining chemicals even in high mountain creeks which is very common here in Colorado and along agricultural areas you can usually find a good mix of poison chemicals in the waters from fertilizers and insecticides.

Most people that have regularly drink from streams around here without treating the water end up with giardia which is fairly nasty and hard to get rid of.

In many parts of the world people do not have clean water, any kind of decent filters or enough fuel to boil water and they usually live their entire life with intestinal parasites.

[canid]

As a child, I routinely drank straight from streams, and while incidence of waterbourne illness was not common in that area, I still count myself lucky to have had no ill effect.

I did get giardiasis in Humboldt several years back. It was extremely unpleasant, and I would not recommend it. I lost some 30lb in two weeks, primarily out the back end.

[welderguy]

The Top 10 Causes of Waterborne Outbreaks * in Public Water Systems

Campylobacter (CDC)
Copper (CDC-ATSDR, EPA)
Cryptosporidium (CDC)
E. coli 0157:H7 (CDC, EPA)
Giardia (CDC)
Hepatitis A (CDC)
Legionella (CDC)
Norovirus (CDC)
Salmonella (CDC)
Shigella (CDC)

And this is in public water systems, and they still have a risk of these Bactria, Just something to keep in mind

[ubercrow]

This thread reminds me of one of my friends he was hardcore he decide he was going to be a mtn man and was living under a canvas lean to all year long at 8000ft. He had an idea that he would just get used to the creek water a little at a time a spoonful-3spoonfuls-small cup after a bit he was just filling buckets from the creek for all of his water, just letting the sentiment settle he did that for 2years and then he went on a trip to NM and was camping and drinking from the streams after about 2 weeks he got real sick and made it back to Colorado and lived in a friends bathroom for 2 weeks.

He said it was horrible and bought a water filter after that.

[canid]

I just got tricked by a guy who claimed to have brought water from town but who I suspect hiked in empties and filled them in the creek.

[Psalm25]

If the stream is small and runs year round it could be spring fed. you can follow it upstream and see. If it is a spring bubbling out of the ground you can drink it from the source without having to boil it. The water will be cold even on the hottest summer days

[crashdive123]

If the stream is small and runs year round it could be spring fed. you can follow it upstream and see. If it is a spring bubbling out of the ground you can drink it from the source without having to boil it. The water will be cold even on the hottest summer days

Not always true. While traveling to our third Jamboree (Mammoth Cave, KY) I stopped at Ruby Falls in Tennessee. While the underground falls were spectacular, and the water was crystal clear - the magnesium levels were much, much higher that that of Phillips Milk of Magnesia. Of course, boiling would not help in that case either.

[finallyME]

It really depends on what is in the water. Plant material won't do anything. If there is chemicals from mining and pesticides, etc, then boiling won't do anything, other than concentrate it. You need a chemical filter, that usually has charcoal in it. A filter without charcoal will only filter out bugs, and that usually means bacteria. There are filters that filter viruses, but they aren't common. If all you have is bugs (bacteria or virus) then boiling will kill it all. A charcoal filter won't filter bugs.

Hopefully the water you want to drink is clearer than my explanation I just gave.

[hunter63]

I drank routinely from area creeks and streams in my youth without boiling, filtering, or treating the water. I don't recall ever becomming ill as a result. Would I do that today knowing what I know now? Probably not, unless it was a legitimate matter of survival. If this stream is where you live, why not collect a sample and have it tested for contaminants/pollutants? Then you would have a better idea of what it would take to make it a safe source of drinking water. My guess is simply boiling the water would make it safe, but a water test would remove all doubt. Even some shallow wells are now contaminated as a result of agriculture and industrial practices not to mention the lack of or deteriorated well casings.

This seems a wise course of action at least you get an idea of what you are dealing with.

I would still treat/filter/boil if you are going to use it as a primary source of water.

[dolfan]

I found where the water was coming from and it was inground then coming out. The stream is not deep the most 6 in i would say. I got some water today and used 2 coffee filters when poring the water in a pan to boil. The water was clear and after boiling it is cloudy. What should i do? thanks

[intothenew]

Test it for hardness, in particular calcium hardness. Aquarium suppliers will have a kit. The cloud is likely lime scale.