RE: [Philmont]: Considerations for Water Purification

IF you can find a water filter or other method that remove all of the
possible chemical pollutants possible, then I'd love to see it in a
backpackable form. Boiling doesn't remove chemicals and could even make
matters worse depending upon what chemicals you dealing with. Filters, even
the Iodine/Charcoal variety will saturate fairly rapidly. For example,
Iodine will adsorbed (I think that's the correct term) by charcoal fairly
readily, but the charcoal will become saturated in 15 to 30 minutes. Even
the best public water treatment facilities can't remove everything. That's
why the EPA sets minimum standards for drinking water.

Yes chemicals were used in the mining process in the Philmont area and there
probably are trace amounts still around. Still I'm willing to bet that the
water quality at Philmont is better than most of country.

Backpacker did a study on water quality a couple of years ago and the
consensus was that you were more likely to come down with something because
of unsanitary outhouses than from the water.

  _____

From: owner-philmont@troop47.com [mailto:owner-philmont@troop47.com] On
Behalf Of Strother Hollingsworth
Sent: Thursday, May 12, 2005 5:45 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list philmont
Subject: [Philmont]: Considerations for Water Purification

For the benefit of those new to treating and purifying their water in the
back-country, I would like to open up a line of discussion about dealing
with man made chemicals and other waste that might exist in your untreated
water source. We have had substantial discussion on the use of MicroPur or
Polar Pure to kill natural water borne pathogens. What hasn't been discussed
is water purification for man made chemicals that comes from farming,
mining, industry and animal waste that are commonly found in water supplies.
Much of our country's water supplies are currently contaminated with man
made chemicals. Several areas of Philmont were mined and Philmont is a
working ranch. Do we know if somebody didn't accidentally spill some
chemicals up stream or a recent rain cause some chemicals to be introduced
to what was normally a fairly clean water source? What about animal waste
that is either dumped directly into or is washed into our untreated water
sources?
Some of us may see man made chemicals as low risk at Philmont and are
satisfied with using the MicroPur, Polar Pure or boiling water as methods to
kill water borne pathogens. The three above methods do not eliminate man
made chemicals like herbicides and pesticides or animal waste.
There will be people who will read this email and say "I have not heard of
anyone getting sick from drinking Philmont water from natural sources". The
quality of Philmont's water is not the issue. The issue for us to consider
is how do we ensure everything within our control has been done to create
the safest possible drinking water in an unknown environment? The answer
should be processing your drinking and cooking water through a purifier and
then hitting your drinking water with either MicroPur or Polar Pure to
address any processing mistakes that humans do make. If water run through a
purifier is boiled, there is no need to hit it with MicroPur or Polar Pure.
Mistakes in water treatment could be known in a couple of days or six or
more weeks later.
There are many opinions on water treatment and people weigh risks
differently. Man made chemicals have been blamed for many medical problems
and birth defects. Since it cannot be guaranteed that a bucket of water
drawn from a creek, spring, pond or other natural sources is free of man
made chemicals or animal waste, my Crew will use a combination of a water
purifier and MicroPur or Polar Pure or boiling to treat our natural water
sources as effectively as we can when on any trail. There are too many
problems with today's drinking water across the country to not at least
consider adding a water purifier to our water treatment process.
I would like to share a point made from Joe, another Scouter in my Troop.
Joe has been to Philmont three times and has done his share of backpacking
over the years in the Great Lakes area. He passed this anecdote along to my
group in 2001 when we were preparing for my first Philmont adventure: "A
number of years ago I took out a group at Napowan for the first class 5 mile
hike. We started very early and stopped for breakfast at an old cemetery.
The boys were wondering why so many of the graves were those of children.
How quick we forget the lessons of the past and fail to appreciate what
modern technology and medicine have given us." Closing this email with Joe's
point is my way of highlighting the seriousness of how we treat the water
while on the trail facing the unknown and what we teach our Scouts.

YIS,

Strother Hollingsworth
Philmont 01, Going 05 BWCA 02, 03
Troop 297
Hoffman Estates, IL

-------------------------------------------------------
Scouting E-mail Discussion Lists @ usscouts.org
Subscribe/Unsubscribe at http://usscouts.org/lists/
Listserv Commands at http://usscouts.org/lists/lc.asp
-------------------------------------------------------
Send listserv commands to: listserv@troop47.com
Send postings to: philmont@troop47.com
List FAQ found at: http://usscouts.org/lists/faq.asp
List Administrator: philmont_owner@troop47.com
-------------------------------------------------------
As you gather around this virtual campfire with fellow
Scouts and Scouters, do your best to be trustworthy,
loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient,
cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.
-------------------------------------------------------

 
Received on Thu May 12 19:14:42 2005