Cleanse water with household tools.

[Lucky]

Just putting this out there, because I'm curious what people would do.

I read about a French man who theorized, and then proved that it is possible to drin ocean water and live, but this was ordinary ocean water, not swamp water and septic water.

So how would you people cleanse water to drink, without gas or electricity?

I'd be leaning towards making a whole bunch of solar stills, either the type that use a hose to transfer the vapour between 2 containers, or the ones that have 1 container inside the other.

But I was thinking about making a sedimentation filter, like they showed at camp. Where you fill a garbage can with layers of dirt and sand and gravel, and pour dirty water in the top and it comes out the bottom clear.

But such a filter would be REALLY great if you could find some way to put activated charcoal into it. Anyone know much about activated charcoal, whether it will purify water, and how it could be crudely made?

Also, about iodine, anyone know if you can put the stuff you put on cuts into your water, or have guidelines on concentrations?

[Moondoggie]

I've got a Brita Water Pitcher or two stored in the basement with some sealed pkgs of filters. If the water was really cruddy and I couldn't boil it, I'd run it through a coffee filter before the Brita filter to help extend the filter life.

After the Brita filter I'd add a few drops of bleach per gallon and let it sit for at least 1/2 hour before drinking.

[hso]

You can filter water with sand and diatomaceous earth to take out solids, but it won't help with water contaminated with bacteria, cysts, or chemicals. You should let it settle first and then pour through the filter pack.

Bleach and iodine work with bacteria. 2 drops bleach per quart. If you don't have a dropper, add bleach until the water smells slightly like chlorinated pool water, let sit for 30 minutes, stir vigerously and smell again. If it still smells slightly like chlorinated pool water it is safe to drink. If not repeat until it does. Use 5 drops of tincture of iodine per quart of water. The problem with both of these is that it isn't effective against cryptosporidium.

Boiling is the best method if you're dealing with contaminated surface water like in NOLA.

Distilation works well, but isn't very effective in producing practical quantities of drinking/cooking water.

If you just can't boil then the most effective chemical treatment is Katadyn's Micropu treatment tablets. They are more effective than either bleach or iodine.

[odysseus]

Basically what hso is saying here.

You can filter for sediment easily with natural sources of sand and charcoal after letting it sit for awhile, but you won't get turbidity out well and you won't stop microorganism contamination. It takes .02 micron filters to do great work of that from untrusted sources. And that doesn't solve viruses, just only the common stuff in North America.

Without something on that filter level, you could use cloth with sand clay and whatnot to eliminate as much turpidity as you can, but you will need to boil if no chems are around. If you can, chlorine and sit time. Be sure too the colder the temp the longer it needs to sit. Sometimes upwards of 4 to 8 hours for large amounts. Also iodine is a weaker antibiotic for water and some bugs now resist it well, so sit time is very long too. Also consuming iodine in this mode for extended periods of time is not advised.

Solar stills and bioling for still, are very difficult to manage, maintain, and process. You need a lot of time. But they do work. You need to find fuel to heat when chem and a good filter are unavailable for sterilization. Distilling is very impracticle for surviving, but works as an augment to a base camp situation with other sources of clean water.

As far as ocean water, only distilling or reverse-osmosis will work. You cannot survive on salt water or filter it out through normal means. You need water to eliminate the salt you are drinking. It's a downward spiral to a painful death. It can aid in keeping you cool and clean...

On that brita discussion. Don't rely on this. Brita is made to clean tap water. The assumption is to filter it for better taste and some mild elimination of some chemical residues. You will clog it up in a second, AND it doesn't stop microorganisms. Your chemical plan after that is weakened since you haven't filtered squat biotically. If you get sick in the pants, well now you are in deadly serious trouble. Since you are planning for this, get a real filter kit from any mountaineering supplier.

[Lucky]

Yes, a real filter kit I must get, but the $200 price scares me away! I wanted to be cheap and buy one of those filter-straws, but I'll save up for a good filter.

Otherwise, my understanding is that distilling water through vapourization and condensation is the cleanest method, with boiling the next cleanest. Not counting filters, which some are better than boiling, some worse. So if you occupy a flat-roofed multi-story building you ought be able to set up many stills, working on the presumption that 1 sq ft could yield 100ml on a sunny day. Also if you have drum-shaped objects their entire surface area works, so they would be more efficient.

About drinking sea-water, ordinary sea water, http://www.logicsouth.com/~lcoble/bible/sea1.html I didn't know you could either until I saw a small article in the newspaper. Sadly I think this article was a eulogy for the man who discovered this, though I do not remember clearly.

While good to know, this doesn't help when you have thousands of dead bodies in your water supply.

Thank you for the new words, as well! I looked up 'diatomaceous' but I am confused as to whether it means that the earth is like silica, or whether the earth is infested with diatomes, or if the earth is like silica, which is formed by dead unicellular organisms?

And I looked up Turbid too, just means cloudy, right?

[odysseus]

And I looked up Turbid too, just means cloudy, right?

Basically yes. The question when you are talking about drinking water is what is it turbid with? If it is tannins like iced tea from leaves, you probably will be okay. If it is chemicals or nasty organics like cow crap or agricultural run off, well bad news.

Also chemical sterlization is hampered as you increase turpidity. The more solid matter possible in the water, the longer the chemwork needs to be applied to make sure bugs are cleaned.

As far as distilling, it is clean. Again the question is about real output you can manage. So try it. Try making a basic boiling or even solar still and see if that output is something you can manage. Anyway - you also need portability since you are assuming a good water source is nearby and you need to transport it back to your still.

It's good you are thinking about this. Water is life.

[Lucky]

Yes, I rented the video in our library on survival skills in the desert, and it touched on reclaiming water. They showed you can tie a plastic bag around a leafy tree branch, or the solar still techniques. And I downloaded the army field-manual on survival evasion and escape, and it has so much information I haven't finished it yet.

Last time I went camping for 1 day I brought a 4L jug and went through it all easily in a couple hours, when I went to brush my teeth and wash the dirt off my face at night I was down to 1L, and I'd only arrived at 5:00pm. Getting the firewood and constructing simple things really took it out of me (plus I couldn't strip down because of mosquitos and other insects).


What stage of filtration would you reccommend for washing water, water to use for cleaning the exterior of your body, assuming that it will get into your eyes and other openings?

Humourously, where I am outdoors activity in the mountains is commonplace, and the nickname for cryptosporidium is 'Beaver Fever'. :)

[odysseus]

If you use generally clean water for cleaning yourself and items, you don't need to use sterilized water for this. If you are in generally good health, your body does a pretty good with this through eyes, ears, etc. It's ingestion that you need to be wary about. I have had good experience with this, but the sources I used to clean were pretty good.

Your comments are telling. If you are on the move and physical, you are going to need a good amount of water to stay functional and alert.

[coylh]

http://www.equipped.org/pp/pic532.htm

[NMshooter]

Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink. Or something like that. ;)

Katadyne is your friend, when I get the money I am going to upgrade from my Sweetwater filter.

FM 21-76 is a good manual, you will get a lot out of it. Hardcopy, however, does not require electricity. ;)

I would rather drink boiled water with some dirt in it than clean water chock full of virii and bacteria.

Non potable water is OK for washing the outside of your body, especially if you are using soap. You need potable water for brushing teeth.

Kool Aid and similar instant beverages are very useful for hiding that chlorine or iodine taste.

[asteffes]

MSR WaterWorks EX. $139.95. Get one from REI, and several bottles of iodine tablets while you're at it.

http://www.msrcorp.com/filters/waterworks_ex.asp

-Adam

[Lucky]

Great stuff, thanks all!

I wasn't really thinking about eyes, truthfully I'm sort of jittery about a urinary tract infection, if you get my drift.

About the soap, I bring a little bar from a hotel, but the problem is it's always scented. I also bought a tube of biodegradable camping soap, but I've never used it.

If you don't have soap is there something you could use to clean with, ashes or pine needles or something?

[Nematocyst]

Quite a relevant question, as we're learning from those trying to survive Katrina.

#1 requirement for life: O2.
#2: H2O (much less life threatening if it's clean)
#3: thermoregulation (warmer than cold, but cooler than scortching)
#4: food
#5: sex :evil:

This filter (http://www.lattaoutdoors.com/shop/kaf001.html?mv_pc=cross) ain't exactly a "household" tool, but it should be given the times we live in. Should be in every suburban bug out bag.

I've used a very similar one (PUR) for backpacking for several years. Fast, light, & small. It replaced a Katadin which lasted for a decade, but was slow, heavy, & large.

If the SHTF permanently, as this one wears out, i hopefully learn more ancient techniques that are less high tech ... or else hope that my immune system can deal with what's in la agua... {can you spell cholera?}

[odysseus]

http://www.equipped.org/pp/pic532.htm

You ever price one of these out? I think they are around $1500.00. Good for boat emergencies in the ocean when you might get stranded. It's reverse osmosis, manual pump.

[thorn726]

They showed you can tie a plastic bag around a leafy tree branch,

awesome! ! i have never heard that, wont forget it.

[c_yeager]

I think that a lot of this isnt going to be useful for the situation in NO. These filters are made for filtering impure water that is essentially clear. The water that is currently circulating around the area is likely to be the consistency of a watery mud, try cramming that through a fine filtration system. Using Chlorine and boiling is effective against biological pollutants, but it does little for chemical pollution (which the water is going to be chock full of). I really think the only safe bet is going to be distillation.

[Nematocyst]

I think that a lot of this isnt going to be useful for the situation in NO. These filters are made for filtering impure water that is essentially clear. The water that is currently circulating around the area is likely to be the consistency of a watery mud, try cramming that through a fine filtration system. good point. this is precisely why i left the southern US decades ago, never to return.

now, even the cities i live in have: 1) no hurricane issues; 2) cleaner mountain origin streams flowing through them.

[odysseus]

I think that a lot of this isnt going to be useful for the situation in NO. These filters are made for filtering impure water that is essentially clear. The water that is currently circulating around the area is likely to be the consistency of a watery mud, try cramming that through a fine filtration system. Using Chlorine and boiling is effective against biological pollutants, but it does little for chemical pollution (which the water is going to be chock full of). I really think the only safe bet is going to be distillation.

Actually it is how skilled you are in operating through this. You need to do the basics of letting things sit, and PRE filtering before filtering, and having a filter that is cleanable (most are).

Yes - also the assumption is you are working through some water you can trust. You should not think collecting water in a standing pool by the oil changer shop is advisable. Chemicals are your worst enemy with these.

Distillations is a great source of water. Again, it is a base camp solution that requires a lot of time, or a lot of fuel. If you need to be mobile, it's not going to be too useful.

[Lucky]

I'm going to start experimenting with how much water can be made with certain surface areas, it's an experiment I can afford. (distillation)

[Boats]

Here is a repost of my thoughts from the Bug out thread nearby.

When I was thinking about the pocket filter I posted about, I was really more in the mode of assuming that I wouldn't want to drink filtered floodwater in NO, but rather, what I could already do in a place like Mississippi, where fresh water would be more readily available and only somewhat suspect.

To drink NO's flood water, I'd want a four pronged approach to the problem and at least a couple of people to do the work.

First layer would be the pocket filter I posted about earlier, for its high filter endurance, ability to take out microscopic crawlies and bacteria, with good out put. As noted, it won't do anything for petroleum distillates.

Looks like I need to buy an AC capable filter now as well. The water derived from my Katadyn would then be put through this hand-pumped filtration system. Activated charcoal removes many volatile organic compounds from the water. The problem with most AC systems is that while they remove a lot of foul tasting stuff, they usually do a crummy job of removing microscopic biological contaminants, pesticides, and do nothing for any heavy metals. The reason I do not own an AC filter now is that freshwater is abundant in Oregon and usually doesn't have cars, refineries, or oil storage tanks sitting in it.

So the third step is something I need to get a second example of. The Katadyn Survivor 35 is something I have on a boat I have an ownership interest in. It is a hand operated reverse osmosis desalinator. It can take on seawater straight up. Even on freshwater, it would remove heavy metal contaminants and pesticides from the water. I gotta get another one of these as I am 55 miles from the one I already own. I could probably get by just using a Survivor 35 against all contaminants, but RO systems clog too easily for general use where silt or other semi-solid contaminants are going to fill pores. So using other products as pre-filters would take the pressure off of this system and keep it useable longer. Another point: This filter is horrifically expensive, but what's your life worth?

Last step would be water treatment tablets to throw into the finished product just to take the belt and suspenders approach.

I do think I could make sweet water out of the NO flood waters with all of the above equipment, and combined the three filters and some tablets would weigh less than one or so gallons of water carried around.

As for the cost of the Survivor 35--Right now, I only own about a third of the total cost for a split expense sail boat. However, I can see buying one personally. Some people have rifle/scope combos that easily exceed that. Some people have 1911s that are more expensive than the $1500-1800 the Survivor costs. Fighting over water or spending all of your day looking for it in a crisis seems more expensive in other ways. It is a way more portable and less tempermental than any distillation set-up too.

However, most people who face short term water problems in urbanized areas aren't usually sitting in a lake of filth. The more common situation by far is swamped municipal pumping stations that throw contaminated water into the drinking water system, or swamped waste water treatment that contaminates back into the system and threatens communities downstream. Then there is the the old broken water main, which cuts delivery, but is usually still delivering suspect water to an accessible place. Heck, you might just want to filter any deposits out of the water already in your hot water tank. It is funny how most people never think that they already store 40-100 gallons of freshwater in their garage all day every day. Just turn off the supply and discharge lines if you have adequate warning. In earthquake zones, strap it to the wall.

One could very easily get by in most suspect fresh water crises short of something like NOLA, with relatively inexpensive hand pump filtering designed for expedition length back country use.

[LaVere]

http://www.vdh.state.va.us/dw/boil_water_procedures_cons.asp


I thought one had to boil for 10 minutes but latest info says just 1 minute if it is a full boil. 3 to 5 might be better. I like the boil method best.

[Boats]

I ruled out boiling for several reasons:

It requires your to stay fixed for the duration of the boiling op and requires more set-up and tear down time.
Someone might want your boiling set-up and it is harder to snatch up and defend than a pump.
Building a fire in waist deep water is going to be a challenge to say the least.
Fuel is going to be very limited.
The authorities on the dry ground in NOLA at least are discouraging the use of open flame.

To me, hand pumping has it all over boiling in a crisis.

[Clean97GTI]

I have another thought.

Could one mix a small quantity of grain alcohol into water to kill the little nasties? Not enough to cause dehydration or intoxication, but maybe an ounce per gallon.

[odysseus]

Could one mix a small quantity of grain alcohol into water to kill the little nasties? Not enough to cause dehydration or intoxication, but maybe an ounce per gallon.

I don't have numbers, but I am sure research on this will show that the amount of grain alcohol needed to combat the dilution from the water you are trying to disinfect and\or also the sit time too to disinfect will not work for the bugs we are talking about.

Most of all the research on proper compounds and amounts are out there to get. These are pretty lab tested proven.

[odysseus]

I thought one had to boil for 10 minutes but latest info says just 1 minute if it is a full boil. 3 to 5 might be better. I like the boil method best.


Also depends on altitude. Someone in Denver, CO needs more time than Miami, Florida. 1 min minimum, a little longer for measure. These are good numbers for those people needing to conserve fuel.

[Clean97GTI]

I have an e-mail in to the National Park Service about this.
We shall see what they have to say.

If possible, I'd opt for boiling.
NPS says that a roiling boil for one minute at sea level is all that is required.
They say you should also add 1 minute for every 1000 ft increase in elevation.

-edit-
http://www.nps.gov/public_health/inter/info/factsheets/fs_bc.htm
Read the short section on potable water. It describes what procedures are used to make water potable.

[Lucky]

"Could one mix a small quantity of grain alcohol into water to kill the little nasties? Not enough to cause dehydration or intoxication, but maybe an ounce per gallon."

I think that alcohol evaporates water, so it wouldn't work in that respect either.

About boiling water, there's a show on tv called 'Survivor Man' or something like that, and in the forest he filled his hat with water, then took hot rocks from the fire and put them into his hat to bring it to a boil. Very creative. It was one of those greasy canvas slouch hats.

[Clean97GTI]

The amount of alcohol I'm looking at is pretty small. Any water evaporation would be minimal before I got the cap back on the container.

Like I said, I've got an e-mail into the Natl. Park Service regarding this. We shall see what they say.

[DavidAk311]

This chlorine dioxide treatment is awesome....for giardia and crypto both...

http://www.backpackinglight.com/backpackinglight/images/items/Aqua-Mira-220.jpg

[george_co]

the link below takes you to the REI water treatment page with info on the various water filters. On the right hand side bar is some additional information and when you go to the side bar there is another link that helps explain why and how to treat water.

They call for 2 drops of bleach per quart. Also, in this day and age bleach in many cases is no longer just bleach. You don't want soaps or fragrances in your bleach.

http://www.rei.com/category/4500461.htm?vcat=REI_SSHP_CAMPING_TOC

[hso]

This is an important topic with disasterous consequences if the incorrect methods are employed so I'm going to do something that I don't often do and that's say, "This is dangerously wrong", for some things that have been suggested or asked about. Please don't take it personally since we're all trying to find methods to improvise or prelocate water treatment capabilities.

Alcohol is useless for sterilizing water. It does not cause water to evaporate, but the addition of water will destroy alcohol's topical antiseptic properties.

While essential for an water treatment approach in an urban/industrial setting Granular Activated Charcoal will not remove all the toxic materials that could reasonably be expected to be in NOLA flood water. It will not remove metals. It works well for volatile organics, but the charcoal will only absorb a finite amount of the volatile contaminants. If there is enough charcoal it will absorb enough contaminant to make the water potable. If there is too much contaminant the charcoal will absorb what it can and reduce the contaminant concentration by only that amount allowing the remainder through to your tea pot. If used over and over again the charcoal will eventually become exhausted. Should contaminant levels be high it will happen sooner than later.

Distilation is good if you don't have chemically contaminated water, but it will not remove all chemical contaminants either. Volatile chemicals will evaporate before/with the water and be collected in your condenser. If you were very lucky and very knowledgable you could fractionally distil your contaminated water and drive off much of the volatile chemical fraction and then condense the water.

Agitation and multiple pours through cloth filters can reduce the volatile fraction in contaminated water, but serial AC filtration or distilation is about the only way that you can be sure to remove solvents, pesticides, and gasoline components if you have urban/industrial surface water.

As a survival technique you could locate a gas station groundwater treatment unit that uses GAC canisters and rob them from the unit. As long as the GAC was relatively fresh you could pour settled water through it and have a large volume of GAC to absorb contaminants.

The katadyn tablets are expensive, but much better than any portable chemical water treatment for biologicals out there. Mechanical micro filters certified against crypto and giardia are also good. Anything that doesn't certify against bacteria, crypto and giardia is putting yourself at risk.

[cracked butt]

When I was a kid, I took a dare while camping with some friends over drinking water from a local river. I boiled it in an empty soda can for about 10 minutes and drank it. It tasted awful from all of the sediments and tannins, but I didn't get sick. I wouldn't want to have to boil water in an emergency situation.

If you wanted to remove the sediments and color from water to be purified, you could probably set up a crude filter using a bucket with small holes punctured in the bottom of it, lined with coffee filters, with 3 inches or so of finely crushed charcoal and a bed of sand on top of it. You would want another coffee filter or pece of paper set above the filter bed to keep it ffrom being upset when water is poured in. Collect the water by letting it perc through into another bucket, then treat it with comonly found unscented bleach.

[odysseus]

Anything that doesn't certify against bacteria, crypto and giardia is putting yourself at risk.

Yes. You want a sytem that is certified EPA rated 99.9%. This helps for bacteria, cysts, and viruses. Not for chemical contamination, which is a huge issue. Your best bet is to try to pick a source you feel is not chemically contaminated. NO's situation is a bad one in the urban areas since I am sure there are a lot of toxins around.

hso - you know of any source for purchasing a large GAC system for something like this as a 3rd level post prefilter,microfilter,sterlization step? I think I read somewhere of someone having a techinque for making it yourself... not sure though.

[hso]

I've built my own GAC filters in the past and used them.

You can get GAC at many pharmacies or chemical supply houses or medical supply. Failing that, order it.

I'd operate in 1 or 5 gal containers. Settle water in a clean plastic bucket/jug. Cloth or sandpack/diatomaceous earth filter it in a second. GAC it in a third. You should use enough GAC to fill the container at least 1/2 full and have more clean sand on top of the GAC and a clean cloth seperating them. You also need a clean cloth in the bottom of the bucket so that the GAC doesn't spill out the SMALL (~2mm) hole you've punched for the outlet. Be patient and allow the water to filter slowly so that you have sufficient contact time with the GAC.

If you want to get fancy and don't want to try to handle the heavy containers of water/filters, use poly fittings from the hardware store and install them in the bucket/pail/water jug used for each stage and set the thing up so it gravity feeds to the next unit. You could just have them overhang the counter to flow into the container on the table which flows into the one sitting on something on the floor, but working with the awl on your SAK and just 3 sets of fittings you can 'pipe" the water from one stage to the next.

Look at this site for a lot of small and medium scale GAC filters and housings.http://www.waterfiltersonline.com/

You can use floculating agents like alum or ag lime to help "force" settling of particulates in the water then strain and filter it. This changes the pH and causes fine particulates to clump and settle faster and filter easier which will make GAC filtering easier and treatment for biological contaminants more effective.

[Lucky]

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y149/54919391/Water%20Filter/Water1.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y149/54919391/Water%20Filter/Water2.jpg

Bought a good water-filter, filters everything except viruses, and it came with a water-bag and some liquid virus-killer for that. Then I read the free brochure I picked up at the store.

Sorry, I admire those with water-filters, but I'm returning this one. Splitting a dish-washer with my room-mate instead. I have chlorine and I have bottles with a spout for small drops. I think those will be just fine. I even know a trick for bottles - cove the opening with a plastic bag or saran wrap, then screw the lid/spout on. This way they won't leak until you want to use them.

BTW I'm exchanging the expensive filter for a cheap one built into a water-bottle, it's still good for the protozoas.

[Clean97GTI]

While awaiting a response from the National Park Service, another possibility entered my mind.
One could simply build a still to distill larger amounts of water.

Distilling the water will most certainlly kill most anything living in it. Filter the nastiest junk you can through a cloth of some sort to remove larger particles (twigs, rocks, bugs, etc) The tighter the weave, the more it removes obviously. Pantyhose would probably work well although you risk ripping them easily...maybe slip one leg inside the other.

After filtering, dump it in your still, apply heat and come back every so often to check on it.
Let your clean water cool, bottle and store for future use. Airtight containers are a good idea and of course, add a few drops of bleach (8 per gallon) to kill any nasties that my slip in and try to grow.

[LAK]

Get a Berkey

http://www.berkeyfilters.com/

For water heavily saturated with sediment and particulates you can run the water through several coffee drip filters as a first stage. Actually you can wrap and secure coffee drip filters around the intakes of any pump type filter too; even if the water isn't heavily saturated with muck it will prolong the life of your filter and reduce cleaning.

For mobility I like the Katadyn pocket filter; and the Micro filter version with charcoal elements will filter out chemicals before running it through the Pocket if chemical contamination is suspected. The only thing they won't do is stop waterborne viruses. In addition to boiling or iodine, potassium permanganate will.

Another handy item is the Survival Straw type filters. Very compact and effective and can be used literally on the move. Again, a drip coffee filter or two will prolong the useful life of these items.

http://giardiaclub.com/survival-water-filter-straw/index.php

Surf google.com for best prices.
------------------------------------------------

http://ussliberty.org
http://ssunitedstates.org

[wizard of oz]

I once heard that if you filter your water after you have added chlorine or iodine tablets it removes the taste. I have drunk bad water once on a bushwalk - chemical rather than biological contamination - spent about 20 hours throwing up and unable to move. Something to avoid.

[hso]

Oz, good point.

The problem with distillation is that it works great for critters (considering that you're burning fuel to boil the water which is what you needed to do in the first place to kill the critters) and heavy metals (since they don't boil into the steam), but volatile and semivolatile organics from industrial contamination just boil off before and with the water and condense on your condenser and collect in your drinking water.

If you can't carry out a fractional distillation then you should run the distilled water through a GAC filter to get those unpleasant toxics before your do.

[Sheldon J]

Don't forget the bleach, 1 or 2 drops in a gallon of water let it sit for a bit and bingo no more germs. Qucik, cheap, effective, and very avilable, BTY not the lemmon sented stuff either.

[Lucky]

What is a GAC filter?

[pete f]

activated charcoal.




one other is a body of water with a suspended plastic tarp acting as a solar still. done right i have seen 1/2 liter per hour of sunlight. over water or wet ground. with bright sun

[Berek]

"Could one mix a small quantity of grain alcohol into water to kill the little nasties? Not enough to cause dehydration or intoxication, but maybe an ounce per gallon."

Actually, this could be a bad thing. Grain alcohol was mad using yeast and uses a form of bacteria to ferment it. Moreso, grain alcohol contains natural sugars that most forms of microbes thrive on. IMHO, this would be bad.

I believe chorine or iodine would be the best bet before getting into the comercially produced purification chemicals.

Berek

[wingnutx]

make a solar still with a sheet of plastic and a cup. it's in the boyscout manual.

[hso]

Those of you that have not personally tried the solar still method should give it a try. It is a last ditch effort that produces very small quantities of water unless you are using a lot of square footage in areas with favorable conditions.

In wet east Tennessee I've gotten as little as a cup and as much as a liter of water from a standard poncho sized "condenser" in a day and neither is enough to meet the drinking water needs for a person.

If you were able to mount many of these you could collect enough to survive on, but you'd probably need 4 5'x5' sheets/tarps to make it work adequately for you.

Please share everything that you've tried or seen done effectively, but if you've never tested your knowledge please say so before making recommendations.

[Clean97GTI]

Sheldon J, the national park service mentioned 8 drops per gallon and letting it sit for 30 or so minutes.

Berek, grain alcohol shouldn't have any yeast left in it. There should also be no sugar in it either unless you are using a very sweet liquor...hence the reason I mentioned pure grain alcohol or vodka (which is grain and water)

Another thing that crossed my mind.
If you do build a still to distill water, you can also use it for other things. Making alcohol is one. Now, I'm not talking about the kind you drink. For those of you in lumber country, you can use sawdust or woodchips as your mash (just like a whiskey distiller would use corn or grain)
Now, you do NOT want to drink wood alcohol as it leads to nasty things like blindness and ulcers and death. However, you do have a first rate fuel useful for many things. With a little work, you can get a car to run on alcohol. You can run a lantern on it or use it as a fire starter.
One could also use it as a weapon.

[odysseus]

I'm sorry, but Clean97GTI you were on another discussion recently about how you were drinking and driving, after encouraging a fight coming out of a bar. :p

Now are you obsessed with drinking booze, or what??? :uhoh:

Hey - all jokes aside - stay away from trying to sanitize suspect water using booze.

[wdlsguy]

Haven't seen this resource mentioned yet:

http://www.oism.org/nwss/s73p919.htm#Message2463