Water purification

[ec.hiker]

After reading the study done on the water sources along the trail I have decided to only bring some katadyn tablets with me and only purifying sketchy water. I have a 2 l platypus but don't want to purify in my water bladder I was thinking of bringing a foldable 5 gallon water container to purify water in. ANy sugestions of a better way to do this?

[Rocket Jones]

After reading the study done on the water sources along the trail I have decided to only bring some katadyn tablets with me and only purifying sketchy water. I have a 2 l platypus but don't want to purify in my water bladder I was thinking of bringing a foldable 5 gallon water container to purify water in. ANy sugestions of a better way to do this?

Why not purify in your platy? And if you bring a 5 gal container, then why bring the platy?

[johnnybgood]

I'm all for keeping it simple . Use Aquamira tabs and ditch the 5 gal. container.

[Sarcasm the elf]

Do you have a link to the study you read? I'd be interested in reading it.

[Don H]

Using water purifying chemicals in the Platy keeps them clean.

[ec.hiker]

http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/show...ht=water+study

Do you have a link to the study you read? I'd be interested in reading it.

[Phreak]

Unfortunately, this study only focuses on one of many waterborne pathogens.

[Serial 07]

i'd bring aqua mira and only use it when you feel uncertain...i've never treated and feel that it's pretty unnecessary, but that's up to you...purify in your bladder and call it a day...

[4eyedbuzzard]

What would you possibly need 5 gallons of water at a time for? Fill that 5 gallon one at some sources that are 400 ft downhill from a shelter and you'll probably be thinking twice about carrying that 42 lbs of water uphill 100 feet later. If you want to go this route consider one of the smaller water buckets / totes like the sea to summit 10 liter. I just use a big Wally World dry sack type stuff bag - serves double duty for camp water and stowing gear.

[ChinMusic]

After reading the study done on the water sources along the trail I have decided to only bring some katadyn tablets with me and only purifying sketchy water. I have a 2 l platypus but don't want to purify in my water bladder I was thinking of bringing a foldable 5 gallon water container to purify water in. ANy sugestions of a better way to do this?

Tablets will work fine. Please not 5 gallons. 4L is plenty on the AT. Treat right in the 4L at camp and treat in the 2L while hiking.

I personally only treat in a 32-oz (sometimes 20 oz) Gatorade bottle and consider the water in my 4L to be "dirty".

[njordan2]

I am glad to hear the water is clean and giardia is not a problem. I wish I would have known that before I wound up in the hospital with giardia from drinking water on the A.T. this last year and spent a couple grand on treatment. I mean that as sarcastic as it sounds.

Filter your water and treat it. I contracted giardia on the trail a few months ago and it is misery.

[4eyedbuzzard]

I am glad to hear the water is clean and giardia is not a problem. I wish I would have known that before I wound up in the hospital with giardia from drinking water on the A.T. this last year and spent a couple grand on treatment. I mean that as sarcastic as it sounds.

Filter your water and treat it. I contracted giardia on the trail a few months ago and it is misery.

Well, given that Giardiasis is the most common human gastrointestinal parasite with 2% of adults and 6 to 8% of children in developed countries (like the US) carrying it, given that it takes a week or so to become symptomatic, and given that there are so many other common ways besides drinking untreated water to ingest the cysts, it is generally very difficult to trace it to any known source unless extensive source testing is done. If this is done, fine, otherwise I have to be skeptical that anyone definitively knows exactly how or where they got it. Getting infected while on the trail doesn't mean it came from water - correlation doesn't equal causation.

But when it comes to the whole water treatment debate, like anything else, there's a balance to be struck between benefit and cost. Would the total costs of all hikers purchasing, carrying and using water filtration / purification goods outweigh the total costs of contracting waterborne illnesses? It's a complex question.

First, it is hard to put a price on being sick. Your bout cost $2000 in medical bills, but it also likely disrupted your hike and made you miserable, which is difficult to assign a cost to. For arguments sake, lets add $1000 to that just for convenience sake. So we assign a cost of $3000 to your bout of Giardia. Yours, however, is more severe than most. I would venture that few wind up hospitalized - just miserable, at a doctor's office, and on meds (flagyl). Lets assign each incidence a cost of a week off in a motel or travel home plus opportunity cost plus meds at $1500 average for each incidence of a debilitating waterborne illness that occurs from drinking water sourced on the trail (NOT in towns).

So let's say that no one treats their water. Over the course of a thru-hike if 3% of hikers get ill enough to get off the trail from contaminated water (which is the best estimate from studies), it results in an economic cost of $4500 per hundred hikers, or $45 per hiker on average as a group. To prevent illness would require all hikers to purchase, and carry, and use some goods or device. The price of different systems varies, but for convenience sake let's set a value on the goods themselves of (making it very simple) $45, which is likely a little lower than what most spend on filters or UV + batteries, but maybe a little more than chemicals. At that price, the economic benefit would equal the economic cost of getting ill, and we would all agree on the economic efficiency of treating water.

But there are the additional costs of actually carrying the additional weight of the treatment. Hikers place a very high value on reducing weight. Lets say lightweight filters/pumps weigh about 8 oz, Steripens about 5oz, and chemicals like Aqua Mira about 3 oz. Lets average it all out at a little over 5 oz. We all know that many hikers will spend absurd amounts of money, or give up much in the way of comfort for each ounce of weight reduction - look at the prices of Ti vs Al pots, Silnylon and Cuben vs 1.9 oz ripstop tents/tarps, high-end UL sleeping bags vs those that weigh more for the same performance. What price can we put on that? I'll go out on a limb and take a guess at about $10 per ounce average, which kind of jives with the price difference between Ti and Al versions of the same cookware, WM vs lesser sleeping bags, etc. It could be off a little totally, or within gear groups, and it will vary considerably by individual, but I think it's "in the range" as it is reflected in actually gear price points vs weight. So we have to add roughly another $50 per hiker just for the economic costs of carrying the purification gear.

I will dismiss for simplification other costs such as allowing for pack volume and related increased mass, the relationship of injury rates related to weight carried (everything carried including water treatment adds up), time spent not hiking or doing other activities, and efficacy rates, to keep this as simple as possible - cause it's already complex enough - yes?

Adding the carrying costs of $10 per ounce x 5 ounces to the $45 in equipment / goods yields a economic cost of $95 per hiker or $9500 per hundred hikers to eliminate illness, which results in a benefit of only $4500 (the cost of illness). The economics of treatment just don't make sense given these numbers. We'd have to see either a doubling in the rate of illness to 6%, or a doubling of the average cost of illness to $3000 per incident before it made economic sense to treat water.

Yes, there are a LOT of assumptions made here, and the cost of illness is VERY subjective and varies greatly by individual. This is true of most all human endeavors. Some will only buy more expensive Volvos or Mercedes because they feel they are safer in accidents, some will offer that such money is better spent learning to be a better defensive driver. Some will look at accident rates and determine the extra cost isn't worth it. But all told we do as consumers constantly look at these cost / benefit analyses and relationships and try to almost instinctively make cost efficient decisions.

I have mixed feelings on whether or not treatment is really worth it even though I do treat my water with a Steripen - I'm not immune from the marketing. It is also used when I travel outside the US though, so some of the cost is offset by it being used (and considered a cost) elsewhere where it is likely more needed. I gave up on filters as I found them bulky, heavy, and simply too much of a PIA (to me).

What I definitely do know is that the companies producing filters, UV units, chemicals, etc., all have a huge conflict of interest when it comes to accurately and scientifically relating the true incidences and severity of wilderness / back country water borne illnesses in their marketing. As do the retailers and resellers. Just remember, they aren't selling health, they're selling millions of dollars worth of water treatment equipment - whether it really is cost effective or not. You're a lot more likely to get Giardia from direct contact with a dog (yeah, man's best friend sucks when it comes to fecal - oral hygiene), or child (dirty little bastards), or adult human carrier than from a flowing stream where dilution is going to reduce the population density of any cysts to below the concentration at which illness will occur (a minimum of around 10 cysts according to CDC). Like so many other diseases, the transmission of the parasite is fecal - oral. Things like privy and car doors, grocery carts, shaking hands, petting a dog, eating shared food like gorp, taking a picture for someone, letting them use your cell phone or using theirs, etc. Most seem harmless compared to that filthy untreated water. They're not. But that doesn't sell filters and such - just soap and water and hand sanitizer.

Good general hygiene, especially washing hands and using hand sanitizer after contact with possible sources, is probably the single best and cheapest method of preventing a Giardia infection either at home or in the woods.

[njordan2]

Treat your water, giardia sucks.

The dope I was given for it was Tindamax, (Tinidazole an antiprotozoal agent).

[Lone Wolf]

i wouldn't think of treating or filtering water

[Spokes]

Shouldn't need a 5 gal container. A 2 liter platy and a couple gatorade bottles do just fine.

[rpenczek]

Being a Scout Master I generally hike with a group of 6 to 8 people. Our process (now that we have been converted to micropure users vs filter users) is to ALWAYS consider our 2.5 gallon water bag (colapsable water jug) dirty. We use the water bag to collect at the source and then fill water bottles. We use the micropure directly in our 32oz water bottles. Of course, cooking water does not get treated, it gets boiled.

You could make this system work for one person using your 4L Platty as the dirty water and micropuring in your drinking bottle.

[Colter]

i wouldn't think of treating or filtering water

I would. There's a reason developed countries treat water. Not treating/filtering is a good plan until it isn't. I've had Giardia too.

[BlindMoose]

Have you looked into a steripen - seems to work great for me