How to determine if water from a creek/stream is ok to drink from??

N

NO F-Bdy Bs

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May 3, 2007
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I remember something my grandfather told me that I always wondered about.
He said that if water was free flowing, good current for 2 miles over sand and rocks, no muddy bottom. No cattle, and no industry, ect within 2 miles upstream, it was good to drink.

This was in rural Mississippi. There was a beautiful creek at the end of his property. Good flow, over sand and river rocks. No cattle, or anything for about 7 miles upstream. I always drank out of it as a kid for many years with no isses.


Thoughts on this this theory?

Considering you have no tests or info regarding the water in question, and no water purification methods, how can you tell?
 
With respect, your grandfather's advice is out of date. I think that is a recipe for girardia, e coli, or cristosporidium. Even if the stream meets all of the criteria your grandfather stated, you still have to worry about ducks, geese, and other critters (not to mention other people) polluting the water.

As to your question regarding how to determine if a stream or river is safe to drink, I would suggest a good rule of thumb is - If you can't follow it back to the spring that if originates from, you should treat it as suspect and not drink from it without treatment.

That being said, if I found myself stranded without water and without a means of treating water, AND rescue wasn't imminent, I would probably roll the dice on the water. In that instance it is choosing the lesser of two evils - risking parasites or dehydration. The parasites wouldn't incapacitate me as quickly, so even if I contracted girardia, the extra time the questionable water bought me might mean rescue.

-- FLIX
 
Send a sample to your water treatment plant, they have a lab and most will run it through and tell you how bad it is.
 
Unless I caught falling rain or melted freshly fallen snow, i would boil or filter any water. Bad water will spoil a camping/hunting trip,or make a survival situation into a real PITA and it's completely avoidable. Just too many humans around these days.
 
I agree on treatment before drinking it. There are just to many factors that can contaminate the water up stream. Like maybe a dead squirrel, human waste, feces, etc....
I wouldn't take the chance unless it was absolutely necessary and I can get medical attention with in a certain time limit.
 
I shudder to think of what I drank from as a kid...Nice fast flowing streams, but they ran through countless dairy farms up-stream. Luckily, I never had a problem. Nowadays, I'll drink untreated water, but only where I can find it comming out of ground (as Flix stated). That or caught rain-water would be it for me, cause other than that, you can't be sure. Of course, in a tough situation you have to weigh your odds.
 
Assume all water in the US is contaminated with bacteria. Fecal coliform can come from any bird or mammal. Boil, filter or chemically disinfect it!!!!
 
Water coming from a spring out of the ground is no guarantee of purity, many contaminants, including fecal matter can move a long way underground.

Purify it. I would boil as a minimum, probably strain it first.
 
I have studied hydrology in school some and pollution that leaks in the ground several miles away can eventually make its way into streams. One of my professors actually just completed a consulting job where people were getting sick from their well water. Turns out by studying the land and how water flows along it, he was able to find out that they were getting sick from some old 50 gallon drums of waste that had been buried by a company several miles away. It is probably going to turn into some big law suit. Anyways, the lesson is don't always think its clean because there is no human development in site.

Also I am not 100% sure, but I think that water that flows out of rocks its usually safe to drink as the rock is able to filter out the bad stuff usually. Although it may depend slightly on the size of the pours in the rock as different types vary. If you ever driving along the highway in the winter where they cut away the rock to make room for the road and you see lots of icicles hanging from those rocks that is just from water that runs through the rocks. It if wasn't right next to a highway that stuff would probably be drinkable.
 
Everyone is saying Purify! I agree, but the original question was regarding no purification methods. I've never been in that situation but source groundwater would be my first choice. I've experimented with seep-holes in both rock and sandy soils. Yea, any groundwater can be contaminated, even your well-water. Even city water is not totally safe.
 
if there was no purification method, I would dig a hole near the water source until I hit water. No guarantees but at least its somewhat filtered.
 
In my younger days I would put myself in "controlled" situations. Sometimes I would take some risks and the seep holes were one of them. I'd use a length of cane, cut off between the nodes, as a straw. I was perfectly willing to accept the consequences. I never had a problem, but I definitely wouldn't recommend it for casual use.
 
Much of the air pollution falls to earth in the rain and snow, which would probably make rain and snow the worst possible water source to drink. Filter and boil everything, to be sure.
 
Longbow, I'd have to disagree. If we break this down into two types of water contamination, bio/parasitic vs. pollutants, I'll take my chances with pollutants for the short term survival situation. Pollutants usually have to be ingested for quite some time before causing you harm. I'm making a general statement regarding rain and snow here and certainly there are exceptions. The bio hazards will put you out of commission fast, unlike some acid rain or traces of mercury or whatever. Again, there are exceptions.
 
Treat or boil "ALL" water. Learned this one the hard way , When I was a kid. Some of those germs are pretty nasty.
 
When water percolates into rock it is filtered, but as that strata filters water it becomes contaminated with whatever it filters out. You then have to go deeper to find uncontaminated water. Water has vertical and lateral flow patterns through rock. So if you see that water seeping out of a rock up in the hills, ask yourself "what is above it?" Jed's outhouse? Most cased wells in my area are down at least 80 feet. They show no biological contamination but all show traces of Atrazine. Shallow point wells in sand are notorious for being contaninated. Water flows through these very fast. So contaminants are usually high. The density of septic tanks in the region makes it worse because that waste percolates into the ground.
The higher up in altitude away from development you are there is less chance from man made contamination. But where do the mountain goats and birds go? Diarrhea can dehydrate you faster than hot weather. Unless you can see oil or solvent contamination on top of the water, or are below an industrial facility I would not worry about chemicals in a survival situation. Biologicals are faster and more deadly to a stressed system.
 
Here's a bit of irony...as I stated earlier, as a boy I'd drink out of creeks running through farm country (one ran right behind our house). Never had a problem. At one point, however, my mother and I got violently ill. :barf: This repeated until we had our well water tested. It had nasties in it. Our well was over 100' deep. Go figure :confused:
 
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