There are a number of portable hand pumps avail at most sporting goods stores, that will filter out most contaminates, but not all filters will filter out harmful bacteria like Giardia. The cheaper models under $100.00 recommend that you pre-treat the water with iodine or chlorine pills then filter, the top of the line usually will filter out the Giardia with out pretreatment but they tend to be in the $200.00+ range for a good one. Be sure to check out the cost of replacement filters.
I have seen some new filters that are using UV light to kill bacteria and so forth but I have no experience with them. If any one knows about these please let me know what you think of them.
Now if a emergency you can drink water from a running stream and in most cases there is very little chance of getting sick, I did this for years before I found out about Giardia and I never got sick from it. Of course there is always boiling the water and draining it thought a simple filter, like a tee shirt, if you have those avail to you. One idea I have picked up but it did not seem real practical is to dig a hole, a well, about 10 feet away from a water source and the soil will filter out all of the impurities.
Out in the field, I've used a filtration bottle to filter the water then refill my canteens. The advantage was, we stood on the bridge over the creek and lowered the filter bottle into the water on a line, then pulled it up. Didn't have to get wet, which would have happened trying to use my pump filter.
This water was clear and flowing quickly - still doesn't preclude there being a dead carcass upstream . . .
But I didn't get sick.
Using the purification tablets would be extra insurance.
Filtration and purification aren't the same thing.
Boil and filter. I've only recently started using filtration tabs.
Get a t-shirt or some other way. If you have some river sand and a soda can, cut the top off the can, punch a small hole in the bottom of the can, then fill it 3/4 with sand. Now slowly pour your water over the sand. It is slow, but it filters most of the muck out. Still need to boil it. Balarzia (sp?) will still get through that one - among others.
I heard that filling soda bottles(clear plastic only) and leaving in the sun for a day kills bacteria. Lay on it's side in full sun, no colored or milky plastic.Remove lables. I'm sorry I can't remember where I heard or read this fact.
Something about UV rays going thru the clear bottle. Maybe this could be a finshing touch to filtering.
Of course, two liter plastic bottles are cheap, light, easy to get.
Though out of many people's price ranges, I can tell you from personal experience in working in the Aerospace Industry on "Life Saving Devices, Self-Inflating" (read: Inflatable slides and rafts) that the desalinator/purifier they use in the survival kits is the following Survivor-06: WELCOME TO READY MADE RESOURCESs
Being that $600 is out of most of our range, this is just a reference, but if you want something that's "good enough for the FAA", then that's your item. Though, for the amount of water you produce for the amount of sweat you produce in working that hand pump, you might as well drink the seawater, go crazy from sodium poisoning and die. We had to service those things as an overhaul procedure and they wore your arms out like nobody's business. They were certainly effective, though. We had a little gauge that could tell how much salinity was in a sample of water and 90% of the time these things were good, and 99% were darn close. Only the really old ones didn't work too well. Also, for the ones that weren't properly filled with anti-biotic solution, you'd get nasty mold-like growth in the tubes; B.E.R. to those! (Beyond Economical Repair).
We have used personal size filter bottles. Pardon the description. We used these on The Boundry Waters Wilderness Canoe Area. The water up there was already clean.
Unscrew the top. Fill to line. Screw filter top back in. Purged. Squeeze bottle and drink from the "straw" or tube.
Worked great.
2nd Suggestion: Drink plenty of fresh brewed Coffee!
Water can carry many organisms and toxins as well as organic chemicals.
Boiling and straining will kill parasites and algae and bacteria after 20 minutes, but it will not remove toxins or organic chemicals. Running clear mountain streams from snowpack are the cleanest if there are no Beaver dams upstream, but Boiling will kill beaver fever/ Giardia. (Alaska has lots of Beavers !) A reverse Osmosis unit will turn seawater / questionable water into pure drinking water, but they are spendy units. Boiled Water poured thru a Brita charcoal filter is a great way to be safe.
I dont believe the post about leaving a clear bottle of water in the sun to purify because I tried it and algae grew fast turning green inside !
A neat trick for pure water is to dig a small hole, put a cup in the middle of it and cover with a piece of clear plastic like saran wrap and secure it around the edges, take a small stone and place in the middle of the plastic over the cup to form a drip point...The sun will do the rest (ie. a Solar Still )!
Rich
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[I]You know you might be facing your doom,when all you get is a click when you're expecting a BOOM!:( [/I]
The Burke water filter is the standard. They make sport containers. Go to a ditch, filter some and off you go. They even take out fluoride. Or an old still they made whiskey in for distilled water.
Last edited by Deersniper; 02-02-2007 at 07:23 PM.
I have a ceramic MSR, and had never failed me. Had it a long time now, and I have had to use it to pull water from this little dirt puddle that was so green with mosquito's and little wiggle worms moving around. I was without water, and was about 10 miles back into a road, or civilization,
In the middle of the National Forest with two pack horses, and a fire ban in effect, and they are about too shut the forest down because it was so dry...The horses found the water to be satisfactory. But everyother animal had been to this mud hole.
I had to stop and clean the filter twice before getting one bottle of pure water, because the filter would just plug up with green algae.
In Arizona, it's like that mastercard commercial,,,, a taste of clean pure water, priceless,,,,,,,,, drinking water from a tank where bugs and stagnet water stand,,,, Deadly....
those Iodine pills in a canteen.... I have been out there with no water for a day, and tried the iodine pills in the unclean water, and man you spend more time throwing up the water, than you do drinking it. and you will never forget the taste.... even years later..
I use a PUR Hand-Pump Filter. It's worked great so far. My Grandfather used to spend a lot of time in Montanna, and when he passed away, we found about 20 of these units (plus dozens of fly fishing rods, vests, float tubes, and thousands of hand-tied flies). I'm not sure how expensive they are, but I've used it more than once and not gotten sick. If you were to ever find yourself stuck in the woods, without a filtration unit, the best thing to do, if possible, is to find a small spring, and try to find the point where it is flowing out of the ground.
Burke 
