When All Hell Breaks Loose (39 page)

Whole-house water filters are the parents of their kitchen-sink kids and can be quite complex. Many households use both, as whole-house systems filter water from where it enters the home but do nothing about potential lead contamination in the house's plumbing system. Most whole-house water filters use a four-stage filtration system to remove harmful contaminants from water. The first stage removes sediments in the water that may clog the remainder of the filter, reducing its effectiveness. The second stage utilizes a chemical process called water atomization that alters the molecular structure of chlorine and turns it into harmless zinc chloride. The third and fourth stages of filtration involve filters made from bituminous-activated carbon and coconut-shell activated carbon that filter out chemicals, pesticides, and other pollutants.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has two definitions for devices that filter out undesirable stuff from water. For an item to technically be called a "filter," it must be capable of a "4 Log" contaminant reduction, meaning at least 99.99 percent of the water's contaminants are removed. For an item to be called a "purifier," it must be capable of a "7 Log" contaminant reduction, meaning that 99.99999 percent of all contaminants are removed. Thus a purifier is one thousand times as effective as a filter. A 4 Log filter is probably sufficient for many conditions and, of course, will be cheaper to purchase than a purifier, but the choice is yours. In any event, the old adage "better safe than sorry" goes a long way when one of your most critical resources for survival (water) is unfit to drink.

Unfortunately, almost all in-line filter options count on things being normal in Urbania to function—ample water pressure being the most obvious. When the power grid is down, those who rely on grid power won't have the electricity to provide the pressure needed to run water through the pipes and filters in their homes. The best option is gravity, and there are several smaller gravity filters on the market. These usually consist of a cylinder in which nonpotable water is poured into the top and allowed to settle over time through the filtering membranes to the bottom where it's drained off and ready to drink. In my home, I don't need pressurized water entering the house, as I placed my water storage tank higher than the house so gravity could do the job. I had to special order a particular faucet valve, as almost all on the market require pressurized water lines to operate, but that was the only oddity required.

The membranes in all filters and purifiers will eventually clog and need cleaning or replacement. Because of this, it's wise to have an extra one around the house. Most replacement filters are not cheap, but the quality of the filter should be why you purchased the unit in the first place—not for how pretty it looks in the kitchen. The life of the membrane can be increased dramatically if nonpotable water is carefully filtered beforehand or at least allowed to settle, thereby eliminating all visible signs of particulate matter. If you're going to invest in a costly home-based water filter or purifier, you want it to concentrate on screening out harmful pathogens, chemicals, pollutants, and heavy metals, not the pond scum you were too lazy to screen out beforehand.

Hopeful Homemade Filters?

A few high-buck water filters claim to screen out almost anything undesirable. Some with reusable filters even claim to screen out radioactive radiation, but how to clean the radiation out of the filter remains a mystery. As with all things self-reliant, it's your job to research which water filter or purifier is best for your family. Don't buy cheap crap, but at the same time take a careful, skeptical look at what manufacturers claim, even with the successful independent test data that a few have.

Military survival books and others usually include a homemade water filter that can be made with improvised items in the field. I have seen illustrations using the leg(s) from a pair of pants, or two containers filled with various makeshift filtering materials. Some of these materials, such as carbon from a fire and sand, have been used for thousands of years for the same purpose.

So let's say you tie off the bottom of one or both legs of a pair of pants. Then you hang the pants and fill the void within the legs with layers of carbon, sand, and maybe polyester quilting, such as from a mattress pad. You pour water into the top of the pants and let it slowly gravity filter through the layered materials to drip into a waiting clean container below. Now what? Is the water safe to drink? Is it free from toxic chemicals, nitrates, pesticides, pollutants, and garbage that the other water disinfection methods won't eliminate? How can you visibly know for sure when dealing with contaminants that are invisible to the naked eye? When will the damp and dark filter material start to breed weird microorganisms that will then find their way into your filtered water?

I don't know anyone who has used any improvised filtering method who has had the resulting filtered water tested for the effectiveness of its methodology. Even if it were effective, there is no guarantee that the results would be identical the next time due to tremendous variables. If your family has no other option, by all means, improvise whatever you can to make your water safer to drink. But don't exclusively rely on the sketchy methods presented in many survival books for the safety of your family—especially when you have a choice!

Boiling

Boiling is hands down the oldest means of disinfecting water. You'll need a container, the water in question, and a heat source. Although almost any fireproof container will work for conventional boiling, it helps to have a container that's suited for the job. A great multiple-use pot is two to four quarts in capacity, stainless steel, with a tight-fitting lid and bail (handle). I can't say enough about this simple yet masterful piece of gear. You can use it for many things: melting snow or ice for water, cooking dinner, making coffee, storing other survival gear, digging, etc. The next time you see a cable channel show documenting rare indigenous peoples hidden away in some remote jungle, check out what they have for "white man" gear. As the camera pans over the village, you'll probably spy steel machetes and a metal pot or two, traded for God knows what. The natives are masters of their environment and can make fire from sticks and rope from plants, but ahh, that steel edge and that shiny thing that can be put straight onto the fire without burning up. . .wow, now that's worth having. Are you laughing yet? Then try leaving all of your metal containers behind on your next camping trip—without bringing your prepackaged fancy camping food. Metal containers have truly revolutionized the world, just one reason why they appear on my "Really Cool, Gotta Have It, Multiple-Use Stuff" list in a future chapter.

The tight-fitting lid, or some improvised lid if one is not available, will save you fuel (as the water will boil quicker) and water (that would be lost through evaporation), both time-precious commodities. The bail or handle allows you to easily carry the pot or hang it from a branch or wire for improvised backyard or back alley business. Stainless steel is tough and safe to use long term for water or foods without the potential health risk of aluminum.

There's a lot of bogus garbage on the Internet and in books about how long to boil your water to make it safe to drink. Heat works exponentially over time to kill pathogens. Dairy farms don't boil milk, they pasteurize it. South of the border in Mexico, if you're unfortunate enough to get stuck drinking tap water, people in the know recommend that you at least drink water from the hot side of the faucet, after letting it cool down, of course. At sea level, water boils at 212 degrees F (100 degrees C). Even if you only have enough heat to get your water up to 180 degrees F (82 degrees C), spend the several minutes it takes to let it cool down, especially with a lid on the pot, and the heat will still kill all harmful pathogens. Armed with this knowledge, you can better understand why I'm
not
recommending that you boil the hell out of your water for a half an hour or more. I explain more about the pasteurization process after this segment.

Disinfecting Water by Boiling

To disinfect your water by boiling, fill the pot with water and put the lid on. If you don't have a lid, improvise something such as setting another pot on top. Put the pot over your heat source and simply
bring it to a boil
. This action alone will kill all pathogens, as some species die as the water is being heated up. If you live at elevation, or are dealing with truly sketchy water, let the water boil for a minute or two. When water boils, the level of oxygen dissolved in the water decreases, making it taste "flat." After the water cools, its taste can be improved by aerating it by pouring it back and forth between two clean containers or shaking it vigorously in a closed container with air space.

After the water has boiled, turn off your heat source or take the pot off the fire and leave the lid on until it cools. Again, this continued "free heat" further guarantees that all nasty critters will die. When I hardboil eggs, I bring the water to a boil using another pot for a lid, shut of the heat, and let the eggs cook for several minutes in the scalding water. Over time, this saves a lot of fuel while achieving the same results. While some of you might be wondering when I'll get a life, harboring a conservation mind-set now will make the transition over to an emergency scenario with limited supplies that much easier and less scary. You'll also do the Earth a favor, and save money so you can work less at the job you hate. After the water has cooled sufficiently to drink, you're ready to hydrate. You can use nonpotable water for cooking as well when bringing any food source to a boil. There is no need to boil water, making it safe to drink, and then reboiling it again for eight minutes when cooking the survival pasta.

While boiling destroys the waterborne pathogens that we're concerned about, it takes effort to continually boil water for drinking, especially if all you have are smaller containers. For those living in hot climates, with no air conditioning because the grid collapsed, the last thing you will want to do is boil water. This procrastination will lead to further dehydration. Boiling requires a heat source, and heat sources need fuel to burn. Fuel—whether it's white gas, propane, or the busted-up kitchen table—might be hard to come by. The heat produced from burning fuel can also burn down your house, garage, or town without proper care as to where the heat source is created and managed, and having the know-how and tools to properly extinguish a blaze if things get out of control. In other words, boiling to disinfect water takes a lot of energy and responsibility, so the "drop, drop, fizz, fizz" convenience of the before-mentioned halogens should be a viable option for every household.

Pasteurization

Contrary to poplar belief, it is not necessary to boil microbiologically contaminated water to make it safe to drink. I wrote about boiling because it does work, and may be more valid than other disinfection methods under certain circumstances. Also, some of you may feel super-paranoid about trusting the pasteurization process (if you're a milk drinker, get over it). Also, contrary to what many people believe, it is usually not necessary to distill water to make it safe to drink. I cover distillation next, as many of the water disinfection methods outlined herein, including pasteurization, will not help if water is brackish or chemically contaminated.

While
sterilization
kills all of the organisms in the water, pasteurization kills only those organisms that cause harm to humans. Pasteurization involves heating water to 149 degrees F (65 degrees C) for six to twenty minutes, or to a higher temperature for a shorter time. (Note: There was some contradiction in my research into how
long
the water being pasteurized must remain at the peak temperature of 149 degrees F. Whichever time you decide to use, six or twenty minutes, remember that you will not be swilling down water at that temperature anyway and that the water will continue to disinfect as it cools to a manageable drinking temperature.) Pasteurization kills all bacteria, viruses, and parasites, such as
Giardia, cryptosporidium, endameba
, the eggs of worms,
shigella, cholera, salmonella
bacteria and those that cause typhoid, the enterotoxogenic strains of
E. Coli
, Hepatitis A, and rotavirus, to name a few.

A standard glass thermometer can be used to accurately measure when the correct temperature for pasteurization is achieved, as will another device available from many solar cooking businesses online or elsewhere. This option is the Water Pasteurization Indicator (WAPI). A prototype was first developed in 1988 by Dr. Fred Barrett, who worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The present WAPI device was developed by Dale Andreatta and other graduate engineering students at the University of California at Berkeley. The device itself consists of a polycarbonate tube that's sealed at both ends. The inside of the tube is partially filled with a blue soybean fat that melts at 156 degrees F (69 degrees C). To use, the WAPI is placed inside the water container being treated with the fat end up. It's easy to tell when the water reaches 156 degrees F because the highly visible fat melts and runs to the bottom of the tube. The WAPI is durable and can be used many times, and can be placed in a solar oven, cook pot, or over a stove or fire. Heating water to the pasteurization temperature rather than the boiling point can reduce the energy required by up to 50 percent, saving fuel, time, and water.