By Coach Nick
Happy Wednesday everyone! With Coach Leslie back we are going to be splitting some of the blog posts. I have really enjoyed writing the Wilderness Medicine Wednesday post and plan to continue doing so in the future, I hope that you guys like reading this one! In an effort to continue making this post relevant today I am going to write about water purification. It’s very common, especially when camping or going on long hikes to run out of water (accidentally or on purpose due to weight considerations) and need to fill up! I hope that most of you are aware that it’s not safe to just fill your water bottle and immediately start drinking it. If we were to do that we put ourselves at risk of getting sick from harmful bacteria in the water such as E. coli and giardia, or anything else that happens to collect in the rivers, lakes, or puddles that we want to drink from. What’s important to know is that without technology that we definitely wouldn’t carry into the wilderness there’s basically no way to tell if water is dangerous to us or not. If we ingest contaminated water we will almost certainly get sick and exhibit tons of symptoms. The most dangerous and most common are vomiting and diarrhea which cause dehydration and can be fatal if you are far enough in the wilderness. Fortunately for us there are some really easy ways to purify water and virtually guarantee your safety. Today I’ll be talking about these methods, some common products that I recommend, and giving you guys a few tips for travel! The first thing to know is that with water there are basically three things we need to be concerned with: sediment, bacteria and protozoa, and viruses. The size of these “things” goes from bigger to smaller in the order that I wrote them. The reason it is important to know this is because a lot of water treatment methods that you probably know about are not effective in treating all three. Without further ado, let’s get into some popular water treatment methods (in the wilderness) and discuss their pros and cons. The first one that probably came to your mind is boiling your water. This is probably the easiest and most effective method out there. Boiling water will kill all bacteria, protozoa, and viruses that might be in the water. What boiling water will not do however, is remove sediment that’s in your water. After boiling water I highly recommend straining it, you can use something as simple as a clean shirt which will get rid of the sediment. Some considerations for boiling: below 8,000 ft it’s enough to bring the water to a boil to kill bacteria, above that it’s necessary to let the water boil for ab out 10 minutes. An obvious con to boiling is that it requires you to carry a pot, fuel to boil (or make a fire) and it takes time. If you’re out camping or on a long backpacking trip you probably already have this stuff though. Another commonly known method is using iodine to purify water. Like boiling, iodine will kill the microorganisms found in dirty water. It’s important to note that iodine takes time to work. If the water you are pulling from seems relatively clean and is a normal temperature 30 minutes is sufficient for iodine to work. If the water looks really dirty and/or is very cold it takes iodine at least 60 minutes to be effective. Also, straining the water before you treat it with iodine will make it more effective. Iodine doesn’t agree with everyone so I would recommend trying it before your backpacking trip as the iodine makes some people sick itself. The great thing about iodine is that it’s cheap and light weight, it normally comes in a very small bottle or as a bunch of tables that are easy to carry on all types of outdoor adventures. The last two methods I’d like to talk about are filters and UV light. Both of these methods can get a little on the expensive side however they are probably to most effective and safest. There are a TON of different types of water filters you can buy. The important thing to know here is that you need a multi-stage filter for it to be effective in removing sediment, removing bacteria, and removing viruses. When owning a filter make sure that you keep track of its useful life as it will not work after a certain amount of time (most of the time it’s around 5,000 gallons). Make sure that you clean it when you get home, they can easily become plugged and will be almost impossible to use. UV light is typically sold in little pen looking things that you basically just shine into the water. UV light is effective in killing bacteria and protozoa and will kill viruses but it takes a little bit longer for that. These can be a little expensive and require batteries but they are light-weight and work well. In my opinion the best combination of safety and space-saving in the wilderness is filtering your water through a layered filter then treating it with UV light. If you do this it’s virtually impossible to get sick. Check out this article for some of the best options to buy filters and UV lights: https://www.outdoorgearlab.com/topics/camping-and-hiking/best-backpacking-water-filter. Just like anything in life everyone’s situation is different. There’s a myriad of different combinations that could work for you depending on what kind of activity you are doing and how much you want to carry or pack. If you’d like to talk about it further or need any recommendations, I’d be happy to help. A few closing thoughts: When it comes to storing water, you need two SEPARATE containers. One that you collect “dirty” water in and another just for clean water. Use that to purify it with whatever method you are choosing, then dump it into your other container. Make sure they are marked so that you don’t mix them up. There is a myth out there (at least I heard it a lot growing up) that fast-moving water is safe to drink. The short of it is this: no. If you come across really cold, really fast-moving water it is definitely LESS risky thank drinking from a gross swamp puddle but there’s no way to be sure. In a fantasy scenario where you are in a huge emergency and come up to a gross smelly pond that’s right next to a fast-moving beautiful waterfall and you have absolutely no purification equipment, drink from the waterfall you’ll probably be okay. However, the best answer to the question is this: always carry some sort of water purification device and use it no matter where the water is coming from. Have a great week guys I hope this post was useful!
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