How do I know which water source is ok to purify

Finding it, filtering it, treating it all in here!
lonewolf
Posts: 1092
Joined: Fri Nov 15, 2013 11:49 am
Location: Ruby Country.

Re: How do I know which water source is ok to purify

Post by lonewolf »

in any SHTF event I would NOT assume ANY water is safe, and act accordingly.
Adapt or Die, there is no middle ground.
Malthouse
Posts: 668
Joined: Fri Dec 20, 2013 10:51 am
Location: Plymouth

Re: How do I know which water source is ok to purify

Post by Malthouse »

lonewolf wrote:in any SHTF event I would NOT assume ANY water is safe, and act accordingly.
Unsafe for standard purification, as per the OP? Or Unsafe and needing precautions? And would that include your own bottled water?
lonewolf
Posts: 1092
Joined: Fri Nov 15, 2013 11:49 am
Location: Ruby Country.

Re: How do I know which water source is ok to purify

Post by lonewolf »

the latter. assume all water is suspect and act accordingly. the same goes for anything else in a SHTF situation, as our American cousins would say "never assume a goddam thing"!!
Adapt or Die, there is no middle ground.
duffmanj
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Feb 18, 2014 5:20 pm

Re: How do I know which water source is ok to purify

Post by duffmanj »

Personally in that situation I wouldn't drink anything (collected from external sources) that hadn't been through at least a 3 stage filter. Activated carbon is cheap enough to pick up, opinions vary on when it is 'used up' but I would think that something like a gram a litre would be a fair estimate?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/500g-activate ... 25935ffbe3

I would make sand the bottom layer, carbon in the middle with something poly-esque (think pillow stuffing) as the first mechanical layer. There are bound to be plenty of more detailed (and probably more accurate) threads on that one though!