Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2020 11:21:05 GMT -8
Too long, don't read version: what are some good ways to remove silt from a water source to improve the efficiency and life of a water filter?
Longer:
I recently returned from a three day trip in the Grand Canyon. (Yes, it was amazing.)
Water is scarce in the canyon and one often depends on the Colorado River. It is no beer commercial mountain water, but full of silt. Unsurprisingly, our filters struggled. After a liter or so, they were very slow because the silt was clogging things up. Everything was fine, but it took a looong time to filter a day's worth of water, which you pretty much have to do every morning. We tried a couple of things, like letting the water sit in a bottle for 30 minutes and decanting, but the silt was so fine it wasn't noticeably settled after 30 minutes.
You could just go with a chemical treatment, but I don't like the tastes of the chemicals or the silt.
It seems like the solution is to find a way to remove "large" particles with a something like a paper coffee filter. I'm wondering if others have encountered this issue and how they have solved it.
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zeke
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Post by zeke on May 5, 2020 11:41:14 GMT -8
We did a Canyon trip March of '19 and took water from the river. I can think of a couple of things to help. A) If you have something to let the water sit in overnight, it will settle better. We tried empty gallon jugs since they don't weigh much and can be carried on the outside of a pack.
B) Those of us in our group that had Sawyer filters could backflush the filters quickly and easily every 3-4 Liters, and they worked great.
Coffee filters would strain out most of the debris, but they'd slow down as well. You'd need a clean filter daily. They don't weigh much. Bandanas will work, to an extent.
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tigger
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Post by tigger on May 5, 2020 12:11:45 GMT -8
I was going to recommend using a bandanna as well.
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Post by High Sierra Fan on May 5, 2020 12:53:48 GMT -8
Let it settle out in a folding bucket. Largely for mosquito avoidance by shifting my filtering time away from riparian zones I’ve long carried a Sea 2Summit 10L bucket. Well worth the 2.8 oz weight. www.rei.com/product/782973/sea-to-summit-folding-bucket-10-litersA couple of those overnight and you’d have you’re days supply. |
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Post by Lamebeaver on May 5, 2020 14:38:45 GMT -8
You might want to watch this
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jazzmom
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Post by jazzmom on May 7, 2020 10:55:32 GMT -8
I've hiked at the Canyon many times and haven't had to use alum *yet*, but it's a good trick to know.
I usually scout the river before hiking in and if it's running brown, I take some kind of container that can be used to let the water settle overnight. I've had enough heartbreaking incidents to prefer a container that's self-standing, like an empty gallon water jug. Fill it up at night and filter in the morning. You also want something that can be closed/capped, or you might find "floaters" in the morning; it's a bummer finding a drowned canyon mouse in your water bucket...
I also tend to carry a big old-fashioned ceramic filter in the Canyon, like the MSR Miniworks, that can be field-cleaned. *Most* of the time, you'll be OK with something like a Sawyer that you can backflush.
The Grand Canyon silt is super fine. I've never had any luck using bandannas or coffee filters.
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gabby
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Post by gabby on May 7, 2020 13:02:29 GMT -8
I think this "trick" has appeared here on the forum sometime before, because I have packets of aluminum sulfate in my gear kit. I remember that the time I first learned about this, it was referenced as a tool in processing water in third world countries. The forum has 'moved around' so much that I think a lot has been lost that passed through here a few years (or decades) back. Packets looked like this:  But they are no longer available from Amazon, which is where I'm almost sure I got them. In fact, this particular product seems to be marked "unavailable" almost everywhere except "prepper supply sources". As best I can tell (though this is hardly essential to the thread - most people should be able to find the product "aluminum sulfate" somewhere), the Reliance Pur company, which made the packets I bought, was bought by Procter and Gamble, so the new name is "P&G Purifier of Water", but even this is mostly unavailable, perhaps because of the coronavirus. (I always have a long story to tell. Look for generic aluminum sulfate, I guess. :^) ETA: Considerations: And, yet again, I've diverted a fairly decent thread: the Pur packets contain calcium hypochlorite, not aluminum sulfate. So there. They do the same sort of thing, plus killing the "bad stuff" in the water in 30 minutes. But to throw "cold water" on the water treatment discussion, (I love that sort of stuff, though it's mostly just a bummer). There is some discussion around about the "sludge" created in both these processes, and how you must dispose of it. Or, so says a statement on, at least, the use of alum in "commercial/industrial water treatment": Many water treatment plants in the u. S. use alum (a commercial grade of aluminum sulfate) as a primary coagulant, which produces a waste commonly called alum sludge. It is estimated that approximately 1 million tons of alum sludge are produced annually in the U. S. The EPA definitions classify alum sludge as an industrial waste that may no longer be discharged into streams."
www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/25038662.pdf |
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rangewalker
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Post by rangewalker on May 7, 2020 14:41:04 GMT -8
I have used a couple of generations of the Platy Water Tank, handled bucket, for grabbing water or snow before filtering. An LNT Trainer Course I took from a team of FS Wilderness Rangers required them so the hiker was not tramping all over breaking down stream banks* while filtering water. I am half a desert hiker, and a lot of my water has come from thin murky pockets and even from the ruts of two tracks in silty sands. i have a plastic measuring cup from my old laundry soap to scoop it up, and like Zeke and Jazzmom said, let it settle out before filtering. I will pack really dirty or animal tracked up snow in it too. then melt. pour through a coffee filter, the more generic the better, and then filter. The Platy Water Tank has a so/so seal on top that helps manage sloshing from the water hole back to camp. Do not trust it in a pack,"zipped up. It use the stand Platy cap thread, the C standard used on all Sawyer products or water bottles like Smart Water. The current 4 or 6 liter versions are horizontal, versus the early vertical models that would fall over and empty if given any side eye. I love grabbing the night water, take out what I need to cook and wash with, and only filter what needs filtering. DID you know I hate filtering...worst camp chore ever. *"break down stream banks" was a laugh as we were in one of the most overgrazed Wilderness Areas in the west when we took the training. |
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rangewalker
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Post by rangewalker on May 7, 2020 14:46:57 GMT -8
Then it has no place in the back country or anywhere really. And yes I am a child of the 50's and had a wonderful Mom from the Depression that used Alum powder to make them biscuits rise and just stand up. But no. |
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gabby
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Post by gabby on May 7, 2020 14:49:34 GMT -8
Then it has no place in the back country or anywhere really Yeah. Some comments I read here and there were that, argh! You really should "carry it out" (LNT). That doesn't seem reasonable for folk who're drilling holes in their toothbrushes. |
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Post by BorderCollieMike on May 8, 2020 8:39:17 GMT -8
from the ruts of two tracks in silty sands Traveling the Canol Trail in the Yukon, we made it to the McMillan Airstrip a day ahead of our pick up flight out. But the river there was a milky blue glacial sludge that clogged any filter immediately. So we hiked an hour over to Sekie Creek where a clear stream of water ran down out of the hills. We filtered one liter and while one of us was working on a second liter I took a sip. Fortunately I could feel it burning before it got past my tongue. So I didn't actually swallow any. Yuck. The next day the pilot would point out the tiny little "hazardous mine tailings" sign. That night we ended up filtering enough water for dinner out of a pair of old tire ruts in the road. It was some of the best water I ever drank. |
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rangewalker
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Post by rangewalker on May 28, 2020 9:12:04 GMT -8
Proof of life. I will pack really dirty or animal tracked up snow in it too. then melt. pour through a coffee filter, the more generic the better, and then filter.  Older photo of gathering stanky snow, melt on stove, pour through bandana, and then filter. Even with a new cartridge in a MSR Miniworks and it's carbon element, I do remember a bit of iodine taste from the vegetation. The pronghorn and mule deer influences seemed to be absent though visible in the snow patch. |
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Post by stevet on May 30, 2020 18:03:38 GMT -8
For Grand Canyon hiking, using the Colorado River in spring time as my water source, I use an MSR miniworks with a Sweetwater Silt-stopper as a prefilter. The silt-stopper does what it says and though it clogs easily when filtering the muddy Colorado you can dissemble and rinse out the prefilter with dirty water, re-assemble and keep going.
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