Spring water

[bivouac]

I've read the sticky on water and read some old threads on water purification, but can i take it as fact that a spring - such as is marked 'spr' on OS maps - is free from impurities such as chemical run-offs from agriculture and metals from mining? I'd still boil it to kill off bugs - i've seen some interesting life forms floating in water that is coming out of the ground - but do i need to worry about chemical nasties in UK springwater?

 

[lannyman8]

not sure, it depends on where it is and location......

the higher up the safer it is as a rough rule, depending on people living there, if a spring in in an area away from old dumps, houses and the like then id say you should be ok......

however, try it at your own risk, alot of farming and polution type chemicals are in our water ways, if you must drink form a source like this i would, keep high up, and filter through charcoal, this will get rid of some of the chemicals if in the water, crush it up small and put it in a sock, then a polly bag so the water has to travel slowly through the charcoal....

where do you intend to do the said water collection, as this may give a better guide....

hope this helps a bit..............

 

[bivouac]

not sure, it depends on where it is and location......

where do you intend to do the said water collection, as this may give a better guide....

Random bimbles anywhere in the UK. The charcoal point is a good tip. I've Googled it since i posted the question & the general advice is that springwater in the developed world is not guaranteed to be free of chemical or biological nasties, although i can't find any UK specific information. It's my hunch that it's probably a better bet to chance the water from a well or spring rather than a lowland river or open watercourse.

 

[Zingmo]

The short answer is no. The fact that water is coming out of the ground does not guarantee its purity. Chemicals dissolve in water. That means they will pass through the rocks as a solution and not be filtered out. However, there are many natural chemical and biological processes that attenuate the level of contamination while it is still in the ground. This means that unless the source of the problem is close by (within a mile or two) then it is unlikely that the concentration of any chemical will be dangerous. Mine runoff (even from disused mines) can be quite high in heavy metals (which won't be removed by charcoal).
I would check the stream to see how healthy it looks. If it is teeming with wriggling stuff, then that is a good sign: If it is clogged with orange spooge then it is probably not so good.

Z

 

[lannyman8]

i have a filter/pump that has a carbon filter one side and an iodine rod the other which kills the bugs, the carbon rod reduces the amount of chemicals, i cant say how much but some is better than nothing, the problem is as above the heavy metals.......

if you stick with the advise from Zingmo and myself you wont go far wrong, just stick to the healthy flowing water, filter and boil where you can, a word of warning on iodine, it makes your coffee taste rank....yuk......lol......

chris.............

 

[bivouac]

Thanks for the advice. I'm fortunate enough to have the Malvern Hills on my doorstep which has many springs and wells, all of which provide water which is wellknown for it's purity, being pretty much inert inasmuch as it's free of minerals as well as bacteria. I used to take the family up there to bottle our own water from the springs in the days before the Severn Trent Water Authority got their act together. However, away from the hills, i'm trying to travel as light as possible and as every litre of water weighs you down by 1kg, i'd like to leave the waterbottle at home and get it as i'm going along. I had a schoolboy understanding that water travels through rocks for hundreds and thousands of years, gets filtered and pops up at the surface nice and clean and ready to drink. Unfortunately, things would seem not to be as simple as that. It's a better bet than getting brackish water out of a ditch, but that's about all.