I’m looking for recommendations for a reasonably priced water filter system.
First let me say that this will be a last resort, or BOB item. We have water stored in the house and will be able to draw water from the well to refill the bottles as long as the gas holds out, which I beleive the gas will last a good 5–6months if we are careful. After that our water will come from a rain barrel or a lake across the street.
I’m looking for a filter that A. is portable, B. requires no electricity and C. won’t break the bank (under 100$ I hope)
Is there anything out there like that?
There are several different models of micro-filters available, which remove bacteria and protozoa (i.e., Giardia and Cryptosporidium). Main distinctions include those that are pumped vs. gravity feed, and those that include activated carbon filters to remove chlorine, which would be preferable considering the likely use of bleach to kill viruses (and other pathogens) in water obtained from lakes, streams, rainwater, etc. I have identified a few micro-filters on this webpage.
Portable, no electicity, won’t break the bank: http://tinyurl.com/qsydv. I went to REI to look at these but they don’t stock them in the store although this was a small store. Did ask a number of questions and was happy with the response. If you sign up for REI’s email you’ll get 15% off one item within thirty days, store or online. I’m not selling, just telling. If you have an REI store near you they’ll ship it to the store for free. Oh, and don’t forget extra filters. They will be the ongoing expense here. And, the cleaner the water going in the longer the filter will last. i.e. let dirt settle or filter out visible debris. There are some great threads here, search on TheBestWaterFilter.
MSr miniworks. If the US Marine Corps likes it, I figured I was going to like it, and I do. I now have several, one for each vehicle and one for each BOB.
A Question for those who have a Big Berkley. With all that is going on, I broke mine out and put in two filters. Too run the first tank through is going to take about 4 hours. At that rate, I will have to start early in the morning and run water all day to get enough to last for the next day. Does anyone else have a Berkley and what are your experance with it. Would using all four filters speed up the process or is it because it is new??
Carrey,
I’m just about finished with my 90 or so page report: Water-Everything you ever wanted to know or at least need to know about water so that you will never be without safe drinking water. Free and I am not selling anything. Send me an e-mail to get it pfwag@lycos.com It will tell you everything you need to know with specifc and researched solutions and a lot of comparative pricing along with hundreds of links.
Also, are any water experts out there that want to preview it and provide me feedback?
I am working with a water filter expert who has great prices to develop a vry low pressure filter (i.e a 3–12 foot head) that does exactly what you asked. It will blow all the commercial stuff, some referenced above, away.
If anybody is interested, let me know and I will go to my laptop and download the Table of Contents. That way, if you see something I missed let me know - its probably in my water files. The report is the result of over 500 hours of research. I spent 6 hours yesterday just on chlorine dioxide (One of the very few practical solutions, other than having a 1 micron absolute filter, to eliminate cryptosporidium. Despite what most people say, chlorine and iodine will NOT kill it.) Crypto is endemic in surface waters. If you get crypto and are otherwise healthy you will probably not die. If you get crypto and have any other problem, you might die. If you get crypto and BF you will surely die.
anon_451, I don’t know about the Berkey filters, but on the Aquarain filters A) it takes longer for the very first batch of water to filter through, because the filters are not fully saturated yet (PLUS it’s recommended to throw out the first batch of filtered wayer because it may contain fine manufacturing particles), and B) you’ll get increased flow from using more filters. This is just simple physics, each filter can only produce so much water over a given timespan. Increase the number of filters if more water is needed, remove some filters if less water is needed.
Anon-451, That is a common problem with gravity filter. You just don’t have enough water pressure to push the water through the filters, even if they are large surface area candles. Kim is correct - the water flow will be propostional to the number of candles. You can help things along by using the maximum number of candles, keeping the outside of the candles clean, pre-filtering the raw water (a coffee filter works great!) to reduce the particulates that clog the candles, and keeping the raw water container full.
I’ve been reading about these filters and most of them say they filter bacteria and protozoa, but wouldn’t bleach do the same thing?
I wanted a filter to filter out any chemical contaminates that might be in the lake or other water soarce in a BO situation.
Am I going about this wrong?
Bleach does not kill cryptosporidium, which will make you PLENTY sick and is fairly common. Filtration physically removes crypto.
Activated carbon contained in many filters will adsorb some chemical contaminants, but can only soak up so much before it is “full”. You need to replace the filters on a regular basis to keep the chemical filtering effective, although most filters will continue to filter out biologicals as long as the filter is still physically sound.
About the only thing besides ozone, strong UV, and nuclear radiation that will kill crypto is, POSSIBLY, chlorine dioxide.
A mechanical filter will take out crypto as long as it is no bigger than 2 micron absolute. Preferably 1 micron. Giardia is bigger than Crypto. That is why some manufactuers advertise removing giardia but don’t mention crypto.
I still need a few people to review my (free and I am not selling anything) Water Report, which is now 99.5% finished and 88 pages, before I make it generally available.
Kim?
pfwag@lycos.com
Anon 451,
We have been using a Berkey to filter our drinking and cooking water for about a year (we have a shallow well, and the water contains a lot of minerals that affect the taste). The first time we put water into it, I thought the same thing! It does seem to pick up speed over time (ours has two filters)tho it’s never zippy fast. We fill it every night before bed and let it do its thing. The water tastes great, we never run out, and I hardly think about it since using it and filling it are a part of our routine. We love the thing. Let me know if I can answer any questions for you. NH Kate
Thank you to all
Kate – at 07:34 I did notice that the second and third runs were quicker.
Carrey in VA – at 09:39 As a old Floridian, I used bleach for years for emergency water. Taste was always bad and it would make you sick from time to time. But since it was always for just short periods never worried to much about it. For the long haul I wanted something I could count on and would not make me sick. I had the Berkey but just broke it out to test it and see if all was right with the world. It is and the Berkey will work just fine. One of my grandsons would be assigned the job of creating 20 gallons of drinking water every day if we have to SIP.
Those of you who have a gravity filter (such as Berkey or AquaRain), follow Kate’s suggestion and fill it up at night before you go to bed. That way you won’t have to wait during the day for clean water, it will be ready for you when you get up. If you’ll need more water than what’s produced overnight, simply decant off the filtered water into a clean container in the morning, then refill the water filter for another round.
Kim – at 08:26
Your’s and Kate’s suggestions are good ones and indicate that you have the right mindset. When the time comes that we must use our equipment and supplies, it ain’t gonna be like popping something into the microwave.
Cooking, water treatment, everything is going to take a lot more time to accomplish and a lot of preplanning. You won’t be able to wait until 4:30 or 5:00 to think about what you’re making for dinner. You’ll have to start soaking the beans the night before so you can get them mixed and into your solar oven by 9:00 ro 10:00, for example.
Hopefully people are starting to get into this mindset now. Otherwise, it will be a hard transition when the real test comes.
Lots of good emergency filters here. http://www.pwgazette.com/gravity.htm
I have two gravity feed systems to filter swimming pool water.
I swapped out the regular charcoal block filter for one that does heavy metals and charcoal filtration.
VERY happy with the results.
Remember to treat with chlorine first for virus, then filter/purify.
This is the filter setup that I spec’d, and now run on all of our fire apparatus for disaster response.
Bird Guano, I disagree with your advice to treat with bleach before filtering. I really think one should filter first, then treat with bleach if needed. Why? Because most filters have a carbon base that adsorbs chlorine, and you are seriously shortening the life of that carbon if you add bleach to the water before filtering. In addition, chlorine needs to be in contact with the water for about 20–30 minutes (or more, depending on water temperature), and I can envision lots of folks who would dump in some bleach and immediately dump the water into their filter. If the taste or smell of bleach really bothers you, it would be better to filter the water, treat the filtered water with bleach, then allow that water to stand uncovered for several hours so the chlorine can dissipate. Just my 2 cents.
I’d point out that the original post specified that this should be part of a bug-out bag…….
I really like the bag filter that silversage suggested. I think I will be going with that since I have a family of 6. It should be easy to pack.
Off to look for a good deal and replacement filters. Thanks all
Kim – at 14:02 Bird Guano, I disagree with your advice to treat with bleach before filtering. I really think one should filter first, then treat with bleach if needed. //////////////////////////////////// We’ve had that discussion on another forum quite in depth. You should filter first for large debris using a coffee filter, sand and/or spun olefin, treat with bleach, then mechanically filter.
I see bleach treatment first as being no different than using a backpack pump purifier in regards to cartridge life.
In a pandemic I want to kill most of the nasty’s before that ceramic element even sees the water.
Sure you need to know what you are doing in the water treatment steps, but the above system was designed primarily for treating swimming pool water what’s already chlorinated, and may also contain heavy metals from algae treatments.
Just stock enough post-filters.
Same situation as the backpacker hand pump purifiers which have even shorter cartridge lives.
Bird Guano, sorry but I guess we’ll have to agree to just disagree on this one.
What about bleaching one day and then after the bleach disapaites (SP?) running it through the filter?
Carrey in VA, in my opinion, that would work fine. Depending on the exact filter you’re using, it can only adsorb the chlorine and some other chemicals for about 200 gallons of water before it is “full” (has adsorbed all that is capable of adsorbing). It’s just a matter of not loading up the filter with any more chlorine than absolutely necessary.
If you become concerned that the charcoal in your filter is “full” and no longer working, here’s a cheap & easy fix. Go to the pet store and buy a box of activated charcoal such as is used in fish aquariums. Pour some into a square of muslin cloth, tie it up tightly, then rinse your little “teabag” under running water until the water runs clear. When filtering your water, drop the “teabag” into the unfiltered water. Same effect, WAY less costly than replacing an otherwise good filter.
my fresh experience with the Doulton gravity filter are exelent.. I tried it out on my well water.. its so full of humus its looks like green tea, with leaves in! I filled up the upper tank and half of the water got thruu, it was crystal clear and tasted good. A litle acidic maybe.. This well seems to be used by the seagull children for swimming exersice.. Well I dit not get sick and feel fine. What I will have to do is to prefilter the larger particles. The algae layer on the cermics was easaly washed away. I have also used it for a month on the tap water. Tastes better and there is something black goo that the filters stops.. probably rust, but I am happy I did not drink it.. Its the perfect and easy solution, and its a cheap system as well. I would like to to declare it the Vespa of watertreatment, or the zippo, or the Primus.. :D
urdar-Norge, if your water tastes acidic then it probably is. You can get some pH test strips to check the acidity. If the pH is much below 7.0 (which is neutral), you can add a little baking soda to the water to raise the pH. You’d just have to experiment to find the correct dosage, but that should solve the problem.
Regarding the bleach-or-filtering debate, may I offer a compromise? (Chemistry majors please weigh in, I’m just reporting what I’ve read.)
30 minutes AFTER water has been treated with bleach, adding 1 teaspoon of 3% hydrogen peroxide per gallon will remove the chlorine taste. I’ve also read that 35% food grade hydrogen peroxide is the only grade that should be ingested (after being diluted to 3%), because the 3.5% pharmaceutical grade commonly available in drugstores has stabilizers that shouldn’t be ingested.
Anyone tried this, any comments on whether it’s chemically and medically sound?
Also, pouring water back & forth between two containers gets air back into it, if it’s flat from being stored for a long time, and makes it taste better.
Except try to get 35 percent hydrogen peroxide in any quantity now that it’s the preferred precursor for terrorist bombs.
GUARANTEED visit from DHS.
Kim – at 17:55
Bird Guano, sorry but I guess we’ll have to agree to just disagree on this one.
Yep, definitely agree to disagree.
The ceramics are FILTERS not purifiers.
I would MUCH rather stock a bunch of the resin/charcoal 2nd stage filters and treat the contaminated water at the front end.
Just personal preference, because I do not want virus contaminated water at the end of the filter process where I still have to use chemical purification.
BTW, I get a LOT more than 200 gallons out of the PW resin/charcoal filters using highly chlorinated pool water.
We’ve run several tests in our department.
Does anyone have any info to confirm General Ecology First Needs water purifier is safe to use? I live in England so don’t know the company. Are they reliable? I’ve looked online and the advert says it kills bacteria and viruses without using iodine or chlorine. Hopefully it will do the job.
I thing we have decided to get this one, http://tinyurl.com/qsydv First I will filter through cloth or coffee filters,then treat the water with bleach the day before, let it sit overnight, and filter the next day. I also like the idea of the extra pouch of charcoal added to the unfiltered water. I should definitly get the full 200 gallons through the filter that way.
One other thing though. How do you know when the filter needs to be changed? Do you keep track of how many gallons you put through it?
This isn’t a filter, but a purifier that uses UV light. I found this in the latest issue of PopSci magazine. I don’t own one, but the concept makes sense, using UV light, immersed in the water, to supposedly kill nearly all bacteria. If you’re interested, check it out. If not, meh…
Steri Pen is OK, but I wouldn’t trust it over chemical disinfection.
There is also the Miox, which I carry in my bug out bag.
Another chemical treatment device that I highly recommend for small amounts.
My three cents:
Kim and Bird Guano are both right. Keep in mind, however, we are mostly talking about making drinking water from a raw water source in an emergency situation. That changes the dynamics somewhat.
Raw water will have a lot of pathogens and other organic material. You want to prefilter as much as possible to remove as much junk as you can. This is similar to the aggregation, coagulation and flocculation part in a municipal water supply. A pinch of Aluminum Sulfate (“filter Alum”) or Ferrous Sulfate will do something similar and facilitate the process. Some people don’t like using Alum because of the potential long term affect of aluminum in the body. It is probably what your municipal water provider is using, however.
Next you need to purify the water. There are two ways to do it: chemicals or very good filtering. In an emergency situation you need to make sure the raw water doesn’t have any pathogens in it. If you catch BF your chances of surviving are somewhere between good to poor, depending on your age and overall health. If you catch BF and a water borne pathogen you will surely die.
Almost all emergency preparedness agencies and organizations recommend adding 5.25% bleach (Clorox) to the raw water to disinfect it. How much is open to speculation. For a gallon of CLEAR water the recommendations are all over the place from a low of 1–2 drops (Army) to a high of 1/2 capful (a teaspoon) from Clorox. The consensus is 16 drops. That is actually a lot of chlorine. Most emergency preparedness sources recommend using a fairly high concentration of chlorine either because they assume a user doesn’t knows what is in the water, can’t tell the difference between cloudy and clear, doesn’t know the actual chlorine content of the bleach or the relationship between concentration and exposure time, doesn’t know the relationship between exposure time and water temperature, can’t count, or figure it is better to be safe than sorry. Or maybe they don’t know how many drops of Clorox are in a teaspoon and assume nobody else does either.
The chlorine will be used up destroying the pathogens and combining with the other organic material to form very undesirable trihalomethanes (THMS), which are known carcinogenic chemicals. This is one of the reasons why you want to prefilter. In any case, it is not how much chlorine you are adding to the water that is important as how much Residual Chlorine is left after the chlorine has done its thing. If you get a dpd (diethyl paraphenylene diamine) indicator test, what is used for swimming pools, you can lower your chlorine use dramatically and ensure the proper amount is left (~1ppm). THMSs are why you want to, ideally, post filter with a cartridge that will specifically take out THMSs.
At this point it is worth noting that despite everything you may have heard, chlorine bleach will NOT kill cryptosporidium that is in almost all ground water sources. If the water is clear, strong UV-C for the minimum time will. If the water is cloudy UV-C won’t. Iodine won’t. About the only chemical additive that the average person can use in an emergency situationeven that has a chance on killing crypto is chlorine dioxide, which is better to use than chlorine anyway (doesn’t form THMSs).
In any case, sodium hypochlorite (Clorox bleach), calcium hypochlorite (better to use than sodium hypochlorite), chlorine dioxide (probably the best), and iodine will kill all bacteria and virus when done correctly. Of all, you need less chlorine dioxide as it has the highest antipathogenic characteristics.
If you get a REALLY good water filter such as a Reverse Osmosis or special microbiological cartridge filter they will take out all the pathogens. However, they both take a lot of water pressure to operate and if the RO membrane tears you will have pathogens in your drinking water.
Back to crypto, you need a minimum 2 micron ABSOLUTE filter, ideally 1 micron to make sure it is not in your drinking water. Giardia, similar to crypto but not quite as bad, is bigger so any filter that takes care of cyrpto will take care of giardia. Do NOT buy a filter that says it removes giardia but does not mention it kills crypto, does not provide information, with test results, on the ABSOLUTE pore size, or is not NSF Standard 53 certified for removal of cysts.
The gravity filter (Berkefeld and Aquarain) will filter out crypto but not bacteria or virus. Therefore, you need to pre-filter the raw water and chemical treat it BEFORE adding it to a gravity filter. Do NOT treat the raw water when it is in the top tank! A better and lower cost solution is to use a Low Pressure Filter because you can easily make 5 PSI with a 12 foot head. You will also get more purified water faster.
If anybody wants, I’ll post more complete info on pathogens in the water, crypto, the various disinfecting methodolgies, calcium hypochlorite, chlorine dioxide, solar disinfection, filters, how many drops are in a teaspoon, getting and storing water, etc. Or send me an e-mail (pfwag@lycos.com) and get my (free and I am not selling anything) ~95 page report: “WATER - Everything you ever wanted to know or at least need to know about water so that you won’t ever be without safe drinking water.” It is currently under outside review. I should have it out in a week.
BB: was it you who told me that you would review the report? If so, I can’t find your e-mail. I’ve spent too many late nights on the report and sometimes don’t file communication away correctly at 2AM.
Bird Guano - would you like to review it? You mentioned “testing.” Where do you work?
RE: hydrogene peroxide. Like chlorine bleach (Clorox), it goes bad sitting in the bottle. Does anybody know how to easily verify the concentration?
While we are on a “make-do” subject, here is a great resource:
WHO - Technical Notes for Emergencies
http://wedc.lboro.ac.uk/who_Technical_notes_for_emergencies/index.htm
1 - Cleaning and disinfecting wells [pdf - htm] 2 - Cleaning and disinfecting boreholes [pdf - htm] 3 - Cleaning and disinfecting water storage tanks [pdf - htm] 4 - Rehabilitating small-scale water dist. systems [pdf - htm] 5 - Emergency treatment of drinking water [pdf - htm] 6 - Rehabilitating water treatment works [pdf - htm] 7 - Solid waste management in emergencies [pdf - htm] 8 - Disposal of dead bodies [pdf - htm] 9 - Minimum water quantity [pdf - htm]
10 - Essential hygiene messages [pdf - htm] 11 - How to measure chlorine residual [pdf - htm] 12 - Delivering safe water by tanker [pdf - htm] 13 - Emergency sanitation - planning [pdf - htm] 14 - Emergency sanitation - technical options [pdf - htm]
BB: was it you who told me that you would review the report?
I was one of many. My email is in my Profile.
//Bird Guano - would you like to review it? You mentioned “testing.” Where do you work?// Fire Department Email incoming.
Chlorine test strips are good for checking residual chlorine. Miox comes with some. I’ve found replacements MUCH cheaper from a lab supply store locally. While you are at it, you should get some PH test strips for water as well.
///RE: hydrogene peroxide. Like chlorine bleach (Clorox), it goes bad sitting in the bottle. Does anybody know how to easily verify the concentration?/// Not without reagents or a test strip. They exist for measuring chlorine residual, don’t know for Hydrogen Peroxide, but my bet would be yes.
I’ll ask and post.
A google search yields a number of cheap places to purchase residual chlorine test strips.
Same for hydrogen peroxide test strips.
For $50 you could have a year’s supply of test strips and have confidence in your water supply.
Cheap insurance.
To purify water from unknown sources;
1. Prefilter if the water has suspended solids using cheescloth or other common filtering material. 2. If you suspect viruses, use the recommended levels of chlorine (see my book here online for references). 3. Use a micro-filter with activated charcoal filter to remove chlorine taste and remaining bacteria, protozoa.
Steps 1 and 2 are optional, depending on raw water quality risk. All the above can be quite portable.
Note that industrial and agricultural pollutants are not guaranteed to be removed by most filter manufacturers.
Bird Guano – at 01:20
Good point. Don’t need to complicate preps in that way.
The stabilized calcium hypochloride looks to me to be the best sanitation option for long term storage.
I’ll have to order a couple of gallons on Monday, along with some Vitamin C powder to activate it.
My brother-in-law is recovering from a nasty rare parasite infection he got from brushing his teeth with contaminated well water. It is called Cryptosporidium parvum. When planning your water filtration, you might want to keep this parasite in mind. My understanding is that chlorine does not kill it, but adequate filtering or boiling does. In 1993, over 400,000 people were infected when it got into the Milwaukee municipal water supply, and most municipal filtering systems are inadequate to rid water of this parasite. Here is an article describing the parasite and recommended filtering. http://tinyurl.com/r5o4n
How does one tell if an activated charcoal filter has gone bad, run out, whatever the wording is?
What is the shelf life of unused activated charcoal?
As noted by tjclaw1, the BIGGEST danger in using any surface water, and some spring and well water, is CRYPTOSPORIDIUM (crypto). In one study they tested 10,000 surface water sources all across the US, including Alaska, and crypto was in EVERY one.
If you get BF you may or may not die, depending on your age and health. However, if you get BF and crypto you will surely die, regardless of age and health.
Adding some Chlorine bleach to the water will NOT kill crypto, despite of what you may have read elsewhere. Pure 5.25% Clorox takes days to kill crypto. Iodine won’t. Calcium Hypochlorite won’t. UV will if the water is clear, and the energy level and exposure time are correct. Chlorine Dioxide may.
The only way to be 100% certian your water does not contain crypto is to filter your raw water through a 2 micron maximum ABSOLUTE filter. (In most cases you still want to add a chemical disinfectant to take care of the bacteria and virus.)
Whatever you do for killing or filtering cyrpto will also take care of the Giardia which is easier to kill and filter.
LizB: An activated charcol filter has an absolute rating and an adsorption characteristic. When the pores get clogged the rate through the filter will start to be reduced (for the same pressure). When the fibers get coated the adsorption characteristic will decrease and you will have more of the disinfectant in the filtered water. Taste and smell test or get some accurate chlorine test strips, if using a chlorine based disinfectant. Depending on what is in the raw water those two events could hapen at different times or near simulataneously. BTW: never run hot water through an activated charcol filter and follow the MFR’s recommendations on the maximum flow rate. The shelf life of an unopened activated carbon filter is a long, long time. I’ll ask my filter expert for something a bit more precise.
Bird Guano: as far as I am aware calcium hypochlorite does not need to be activated. The granular stuff simply dissoves in water. Two part chlorine dioxide needs an acid to activate it. However, like sodium hypochlorite, and probably any chlorine releasing compound, it is probably more bio-effective when the pH is acidic.
All this and much more is available in my free and I am not selling anything 95 page report: “Water- Everything you ever wanted to know or at least need to know about water so that you won’t ever be without safe drinking water” Send me an e-mail if you would like a copy. pfwag@lycos.com I haven’t figured out where I am going to post it.
any suggestions on what a dependable, reusable prefilter might be made of? seems like aquarain sold something but ive had trouble finding it for sale.
i’d rather not rely on reusable coffee filters to filter my well-water.
props and shout-outs to the fluwikian community!
sorry, make that “disposable coffee filters”.
REI has the MSR EX mini on sale right now $64.99 -great portable filter (I think .2 micron)
chivito - only 10–20% of wells have biological contamination. Bacteria and virus are easy to kill. Crypto is not. Get your well water tested for crypto and giardia.
Coffee filters make a great prefilter to reduce the organic material present in raw water so you don’t have to use as much disinfectant and it also the reduces the amount of THMSs created. (When chlorine combines with various organic matter in the water it creates substances called trihalomethanes (THMS) which are known carcinogenic chemicals.)
They will NOT, however, filter out cysts.
Everything you ever wanted to know about filters, and then some, is in my water report. See my prior posting.
thanks, pfwag.
i was just hoping for some sort of reusable filter cloth/mesh for ridding my well water of clay, dirt, etc before possibly chlorinating and aquarain filtering.
any such filter cloth/mesh?
thanks for all your research. im looking fwd to reading your report!
Sorry about the blank post above. I accidentally hit the mouse.
Chivito, I’m not sure whether this would suit your purposes, but today I was in the canning section of the store and noticed they were clearing out a number of items. Among them was a “jelly strainer,” consisting of a fabric bag with drawstring and a metal frame. The metal frame consisted of a metal circle with three legs that screw into the frame. The fabric bag is placed inside the circle and then the top of the bag is stretched over the metal circle—you pull the drawstring to tighten the bag over the circle portion of the frame The bag is not very big, only a little bigger than a coffee filter. You can also buy replacement bags. I don’t know why this wouldn’t work for pre-filtering. (In fact, I bought it for just that purpose.) However, someone more knowledgeable might have some thoughts.
Just a follow up to my previous post. My brother-in-law is still suffering the effects of a parasite infection - CRYPTOSPORIDIUM. The doctor was required to report this infection to the health department and they are now investigating, trying to figure out where he got it. Believe me, this is a parasite you do not want to get, or have your children get. It is very contageous once you are infected, and chlorine bleach does NOT kill it. Please follow the above advice and make sure your filter is adequate to screen out this horrible parasite, or plan to boil your water. So far, my BIL has missed 2 weeks of work and been throwing up with diarhea the whole time. They said it could take up to 30 days for the infection to clear up, and there is NO treatment for this.
thanks for the tip, genoa; i’ll check it out.
tj: wow. wish him well.
“a smart person learns from their mistakes. a wise person learns from the mistakes (mishaps) of others.”
or as my granddaddy always said (with german accent): “a word to the wise is sufficient.”
Update on local CRYPTOSPORIDIUM infections. A 5yo girl who is in my daughter’s kindergarten class and her tumbling class has been diagnosed with a crypto infection. She’s been out of school for a week. I could have flipped when her mother brought her to tumbling class this morning (she’s still contageous). Her mother thinks she got it from a swimming pool, but the health dept. is still investigating. That’s 5 people I know who have been infected in our town in the last few weeks. Highlights the importance of safe drinking water. Reminder, bleach does NOT kill this parasite, it can be deadly, and there is NO treatment for it.
tjclaw1, so this only applies to your town (which area?) or do you have a nationwide statistics ?
chivito – at 00:47
Aquarain makes a cloth pre-filter bag for about $10. It’s not shown on their website. You have to phone in the order. It’s 7 inches diameter on top, and then flatens out like a wedge downwards. Height is 16 inches. It’s designed to pre-filter large particles. It should drain right into the upper feed tank of the Aquarain gravity filter which does remove crypto.
anonymous – at 04:01
We are in a small town (less than 20,000) in midwest Illinois. I don’t have any national or regional statistics, but I’m planning to ask a friend of mine who works at the health dept. how many cases have been reported in our county.
Here’s a CDC article on safe drinking water that really opened my eyes. http://tinyurl.com/okl7j It says the best way to treat water is to boil it because there can be manufacturing defects in filtering equipment (oops!) and that you should wear gloves when handling used filters. It also talks about looking at the labels on bottled water, juices, etc. because they can be contaminated if not pasturized or processed properly. Lots of stuff I never gave a thought to. That would be the pits, store drinking water for an emergency and then get deathly ill because you stored water that was not purified!
from my report:
Cryptosporidium
Cryptosporidium, “crypto” for short, is a very widespread, water borne protozoa. If you get infected you get a disease called Cryptosporidiosis and you will get very sick but usually won’t die. If you get Cryptosporidiosis and have or catch nearly any other series disease at the same time, including “regular” influenza you will probably die. However, if you get Cryptosporidiosis and Bird Flu, you will surely die.
In discussing Cryptosporidium, it is worth noting that there is a similar pathogen called Giardia, which is just as widespread, if not more so, and which causes Giardiasis and is another disease you do not want to be catching either. However, in the grand scheme of things, Giardia is not quite as bad as Crypto and any mediation efforts done for Crypto will automatically take care of Giardia. In fact, some of the efforts to eradicate Crypto will also take care of many pathogens.
Cryptosporidium is already in the raw water of most municipal water supplies as nearly all surface water sources are polluted with Crypto and it is getting worse every year. Crypto has a life cycle where its eggs, called cysts, have a nearly impenetrable hard outer shell. In this stage it is VERY HARD to kill. As a result your municipal water source has added or increased the methods used to try to kill it and usually added additional and very extensive filtering to prevent it from getting through and coming out your tap.
Occasionally, however, something goes wrong and, as a result of Cryptosporidium, bad things can happen to a lot of people. In the Milwaukee incident, 400,000 people were infected, thousands hospitalized, and hundreds died. Many of those who were infected never completely recovered and have lasting side affects. Smaller Crypto infections are occurring with increasing frequency every year, including recent outbreaks in Nevada, Oregon and Georgia.
The reason you are even reading this paper is because you expect to be in a situation where the water coming out of your tap is suspect or there is no water coming out of your tap. In both cases the water that you will be using is most likely polluted. If that water is surface water there is a very high probability that it is already infected with Cryptosporidium. However, as the Milwaukee incident revealed, it does not take an outside factor to occur for you to get infected with Cryptosporidium.
How hard are Cryptosporidium cysts to kill? As noted in Disinfection and oocyst survival “Few commercial disinfectants are effective against the oocysts, nor is chlorination at normal drinking water treatment levels” and one study noted that “long-term exposure to 70–100% bleach is necessary to completely eliminate infectivity” and “3% chlorine as Na hypochlorite for up to 18 h does not affect viability.” Another report noted that “crypto cysts suspended in 5.25% aqueous Na hypochlorite (full-strength Clorox bleach) for up to 2 h still initiated infection.” The Waterloo Centre for Groundwater Research refers to cryptosporidium as the “the environmentally stable lifeform.”
For more information on Cryptosporidium, see: A Review of Cryptosporidiosis, Cryptosporidium: an emerging pathogen and Cryptosporidium - A Review of the Organism, the Disease, and Implications for Managing Water Resources
What will disinfect water of Cryptosporidium? According to the Army:
Chlorine: Ineffective, even at high CT values. (CT= Concentration X Time in mg minutes per liter)
Chlorine Dioxide: Effective at high CT values. If possible, use longer contact times instead of higher dosages to achieve adequate CT values. Colder water temperatures require higher CT values. Use a two-fold increase in CT for every 10° C decrease.
Iodine: Not Effective
UV: Effective at reasonable doses.
The bottom line for our emergency water scenarios is that there is nothing you can add to polluted water to be 100% sure of killing Cryptosporidium, despite what others may be saying. The only viable additive chemical additive solution for our purposes that might POSSIBLY kill Cryptosporidium is Chlorine Dioxide, covered in the Chemical section, below.
However, all is not lost. Crypto can be killed with a modest amount of heat and is relatively easy to filter out of water. The heating methods are discussed immediately below and for filtering all you need is a mechanical filter with an absolute pore size of 2 microns, ideally 1 micron. This is covered in the Filter section.
send me an e-mail if you want the whole report (115 pages). Free and I am not selling anything.
Is crypto in your water? If it is surface water the answer is YES. A recent CSU study of 10,000 surface waters across the continetnal US and Alaska found crypto IN EVERY ONE.
I did not see much mention of the 0.2 micron Katadyn Gravidyn, which is the one with the charcoal. What if I were to pre-filter water from Lake Michigan, pass it though the Gravidyn, and then treat it with chlorine bleach? Does anyone see a flaw with that plan?
DrD- If it were me, I’d bleach first, then filter, allowing the filter to remove both the chlorine and the amines
Did anyone catch the Food Networks - Good Eats: Water I? It was on last night and will be on again: September 18, 2006 7:00 PM ET/PT.
“Join Alton Brown as he heads upstream in search of the world’s most important ingredient: water. Where does it come from, how is it made safe to drink and how does it get from the source to our kitchen sinks? “
He even talk about Cryptosporidium and the Milwaukee incident, although he didn’t say it infected 400,000 people, but did say 50 died. It’s a good over view of how much equipment it takes to bring us tap water!! Makes me glad I ordered a new filter and have lots of tarps and rainbarrels.
Water Works II will be on:
September 18, 2006 11:00 PM ET/PT September 19, 2006 2:00 AM ET/PT September 25, 2006 7:00 PM ET/PT
“In his second exploration of the only ingredient pumped directly into our homes, Alton Brown looks at water from the inside out with the help of a friendly water molecule. Along the way, he explains how water is scrubbed clean before it reaches our homes”
Dr Dave – at 13:18 - It would be best to get some free chlorine test strips and make sure that you’re adding the appropriate amount of bleach, which can vary with water temperature, runoff, other uses of the lake, etc.
Dr Dave: Under normal circumstances that is probably OK. Keep in mind, however, if you are post chlorinating your filter is now contaminated with whatever was in the raw water. Since virus are smaller than 0.2 micron that means your filter will now be a resevoir for virus. With the potential of H5N1 that is probably not a good thing. In my opinion you want to limit your exposure to potential H5N1 contaminated water to be as little as possible. I don’t know how easily the Katadyn Gravidyn gets clogged but if easy you need to pre-filter as you noted. You now have a choice to pre-filter and then add chlorine or add chlorine and then prefilter. The former will reduce the THMSs some but the latter is less exposure. Given the ramifications of ingesting a few more THMSs (Does the Katadyn Gravidyn remove THMSs?) or being exposed to H5N1 longer, I’d take the THMSs. In either case, you still need to disinfect everything that the raw water came in contact with. That is one of the reason I like the two part low pressure filter - you can get a large physical seperation between the raw and puriifed water.
And don’t forget to plan for a potential “oops” of H5N1 coming out of your faucet. In the Milwaukee incident 15 days went by before the problem was detected and the malfunctioning water treatment plant was shut down. With H5N1 they’d know there is a problem in a few days when lots of people start dying.
Thanks for all the feedback on the Katadyn. This really heps.
Dr. Dave
There is somewhere on a post from Gary links to pictures of his homemade “Berky filtered” water system.
He used 2 buckets and 2 or 4 Berkey ceramic filters and built a gravity filter with charcoal as a liner among other things, I think.
Anyway, I have a Big Berkefeld that I’ve had for years, and plan to buy extra filters off eBay and set up some buckets like Gary did so I can inexpensively filter water from either the lake or the inflatable pool I bought — I can use as many buckets as I want, with charcoal, or whatever layers of filters I want to set up, including the adding of Clorox, some sitting time, then running through the charcoal, etc. before running through my precious Berkey!
Is there any documentation that H5N1 virus can survive in water for any length of time?
Kim, Perhaps this will answer your question, to some degree anyway.
Physical characteristics of influenza A viruses Viruses remain infectious after 24 to 48 hours on nonporous environmental surfaces and less than 12 hours on porous surfaces (see References: Bean 1982). (Note: The importance of fomites in disease transmission has not been determined.)
Influenza A viruses can persist for extended periods of time in water (see References: WHO: Review of latest available evidence on risks to human health through potential transmission of avian influenza [H5N1] through water and sewage). One study of subtype H3N6 found that virus resuspended in Mississippi River water was detected for up to 32 days at 4°C and was undetectable after 4 days at 22°C (see References: Webster 1978). Another study found that several avian influenza viruses persisted in distilled water for 207 days at 17°C and 102 days at 28°C (see References: Stallknecht 1990). Recent data from studies of H5N1 in domestic ducks have shown that H5N1 can survive in the environment for 6 days at 37ºC (see References: WHO: Laboratory study of H5N1 viruses in domestic ducks). Inactivation of the virus occurs under the following conditions (see References: OIE 2002, PHS): temperatures of 56ºC for 3 hours or 60ºC or more for 30 minutes; acidic pH conditions; presence of oxidizing agents such as sodium dodecyl sulfate, lipid solvents, and B-propiolactone; and exposure to disinfectants such as formalin and iodine compounds
I also found this intriguing bit of information at CIDRAP, but under Avian Influenza: Agricultural and Wildlife Considerations.
The disease is highly contagious. One gram of contaminated manure can contain enough HPAI virus to infect 1 million birds (see References: APHIS).
That’s a scary bit of information, I think.
I’m-workin’-on-it: Other than being a good, reliable, and proven design there is nothing special about the Berkey. Like all gravity filters the candles are prone to clogging if the water is dirty. Since there is so little water pressure it doesn’t take much to dramatically reduce the filtering. Since you already have one, if you want to adapt a pre-filter look at the using the NanoCeram (http://tinyurl.com/hgque). It is the latest in filtering technology and will filter out a lot of crud. I’d have to check, but it might actually filter better than the Berkey and it is much cheaper. Look at the low cost low pressure filters solutions at http://tinyurl.com/efaaa
Snowhound1: Since your municipal drinking water is coming from that water where the H5N1 infected fowl will be swimming in, you want protection on your tap water to protect you from an “oops”. The lowest cost solution I have found is http://tinyurl.com/kar3b
Good suggestions above. If/when bird flu is around, you might want to read this http://tinyurl.com/ee8hz before simply drinking water from your faucet. Being forewarned allows you to be prepared.
As others have pointed out, so far there is no evidence that people have caught the virus by eating or drinking. I hope it stays that way!
For those looking for lower cost mechanical filtration take a look at Aquatic EcoSystems (aquaticeco.com) bag filters. The bags are 7″ dia x 32″ long, available in 100 micron down to 1 micron. Get the felt bag, not the monofilament bag. I use them in my lab all the time in aquaculture system filtration. They withstand about 10 washings before delaminating at the seam when used with 20 psi pumps, probably a lot more than that with gravity flow. Gravity flow rate (1′ head pressure) is about one gallon per 5 minutes for the 1 micron if prefiltered with a 100 micron and using fairly dirty water. The filter bags cost around $6 each. There is a REALLY nice filter bag vessel for them (at $318!) but you can make a vessel from 8″ x 36″ section of pipe for gravity feed, or use the bag over a barrel and let it free-flow. Look for part # vb100 for the 100 micron, vb1 for the 1 micron.
They have a Doulton ceramic cartridge that filters 100% on dryto and Gardi cysts, and can be easily cleaned. THe cartridge fits a standard 10″ water filter housing from usual big box hardware stores, but will need to be pressure fed,flow is SLOW unless filtering by gravity over night. $29, FX2.
Their Matrix carbon filters also fit 10″ housing, remove crypto and chlorine and cost $20 (FX3) but are not cleanable once gunked up (prefilter with bag filters and they last a long time.)
Their polymicro filters (10″) are CHEAP ($3.26) and go down to 1 micron, but no mention of crypto filtration.
I use all of the above except the bag filters to filter my house water (WAY too many chicken farms around me!) and am setting up a bag filter system to prefilter my pond/roof water.
I have a distributorship from them, but only because I buy from them so often for the lab that I get volume discount, and have delt with them for over 15 years. I run commercial and research aquaculture and hydroponic labs and systems, and they are the best source for water filtration for my needs ( I filter a LOT of fish …. waste). BTW, the filtrate from aquaculture systems is one of the best fertilizers that I have ever seen, and all organic. The smell though takes a little to get used to…
Their phone number is 877–347–4788 for orders, and 407–886–3939 for tech support. Their tech support is great for helping design your own filtration system.
Mari: There was no evidence that 400,000 people were being infected in Milwaukee until they were and it was discovered about 2 weeks afer the fact. While that was the largest “oops” that I am aware of, smaller ones routinely happen all over the US. What if that had been H5N1?
If you get cryptosporidium from an “oops” you probably won’t die but if you get H5N1 there is a good chance that you might. Since the “opps” allowed H5N1 through you can be sure crypto will come through too. If you get H5N1 and crypto you will surely die.
Read the link posted at 10:46. I have had water experts tell me worse things. Right now the water coming out of your faucet is not 100% safe 100% of the time. What chance are you willing to take with BF?
Strider - good info. I’ll look into it. Off hand, how easy would they be to adapt to the open pipe? Since they would be a pre-filter they come in contact with raw water which might be carrying H5N1. One needs an easy way to adapt it and change it to limit exposure to infected water. I’m thinking it may make a good gravity pre-filter with a tube leading to treatment and post filtering. I can see a use in the low pressure filter system referenced above. The “delaminating at the seam” has me a litle concerned though. Any idea how chlorine might affect that?
BTW, you only need 2 micron ABSOLUTE (1 micron recommended) to remove crypto. After that you need something to kill the bacteria and virus or the biological filter referenced above to remove them.
pfwag – at 14:30 The same company has a filter bag adapter to adapt to 1½” mpt (male pipe thread). They also have excellent acitvated carbon for water filtration in 15 lb (5 gal) buckets and 40 lb bags.
I’ve cleaned the bags with bleach and sun-dried them, doesn’t seem to bother the bags.
For biofiltration I’ve found horticultural rockwool (water-absorbing, NOT insulation grade water repellant) in fine grinds to be excellant. Feeding the rockwool air from a blower and through fine grade 12″ airstones gives great Nitrosommonas and nitrobacter bacteria growth. Surface area per cu ft is tremendous!
pfwag – at 14:30 Missed your concern about delamination. That only occurs when I fail to change filters before they get up to around 18 lb sq in resistance. A gravity fed system won’t hit this high unless you use a 50′ high feed tube.
BTW, a 1 micron filter bag only weighs about 14 oz and folds up into a 7×7x1″ panel when dry, so could be put into a pack for easy cheap filtration if you have something to drain it into (5 gal bucket?) for a B.O.B. Just hang the filter bag from a limb with 550 cord and let gravity feed into bucket overnight. Cheap emergency filter for under $10.
Strider - I spent some time on the site and coundn’t find the filter bag adaptor. Of course I’m not sure what I am actually looking for. In any cae, would you happen to have a P/N?
Strider - I couldn’t find it either. I’m thinking of hanging the bag on the bottom of a lid on a 5G pail. Will the adapter allow that? Is the bag strong enough to be suspended like that full of water or does it need to be immersed in water?
Anyway, this would then be the prefilter that goes to the low pressure filter I referenced above. In your case the output could be feed to your Berkey.
The Food Networks - Good Eats: Water II was on last night. It did a good job of showing a simplified version of Cryptosporidium cysts and how bleach doesn’t kill them. It also mentioned that the average US (and Canadian) resident uses 115 gallons of water per day! That made me wonder how my household will get by on the suggested 4 gallons a day (not).
pfwag: is your water report posted somewhere?
silversage – at 15:37 That made me wonder how my household will get by on the suggested 4 gallons a day (not).
If you’ve never gone camping, do so. (And I don’t mean at one of those RV campgrounds that have electricity and water hook-ups.) You’ll see it can easily be done. You just have to live a minimalist lifestyle. That’s not to say you have to live like a grub. You just can’t run loads of laundry, soak in 20-minute steaming hot showers twice a day…
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