WOFT,

It's an interesting thought, and I too would like to hear the opinions of others.

Back in the '70s I rarely treated water in the wilderness, only when I was unsure if there might be development or camps upstream- any digestive problems I had were almost certainly normal for freeze-dried food, not the result of the water. Into the '80s and '90s I became more and more paranoid about the water as the press assured me that vitually all of it was contaminated with Giardia. There seems little consensus as to how serious that situation really is, and many people seem to be immune, possibly from exposure. These days, I always carry a filter on overnight trips or longer. Unlike most, I favor those by Katadyn, and have three.

In contrast to my attitude about food, I'm VERY concerned about water, and I often have a vial of Potable Aqua even in my "urban" kit, which may be silly. The vials that some of us got from Barry at Blue Line are quite small, though- much smaller than the factory bottle, about the diameter and half the length of one AA cell. The "cost" of carrying one of these is relatively small.

Giardiosis takes some days to develop, I think, but I'm under the impression that water contaminated with E. coli can easily make you very sick in hours, or overnight. If true, that my be the justification you're looking for. In the US, even some cities have had problems with contamination of the water supply by E. coli. After you've had the authorities caution you against drinking tap water where you work a couple of times, you start to wonder about the incidents you're NOT hearing about... for the time being, I drink bottled water and carry the little pills.