I tend to boil everything.
Not always, but if it is not from a known well or spring I try to make tea.
I do still keep a small pumped type water filter (Fits Nalgene bottles) for emergency use, but I have never bothered to use it.
If I was dieing of thirst and had no way to treat it I would drink it untreated.
Better to be getting treated for sickness than be dead of dehydration.
If I treat it with chemicals I usually just use a bit of bleach and leave it uncovered overnight.
A little bit of bleach treats a lot of water so long as it gets the exposure time.
I like to leave it about 6 hours, but some people figure anything from less than an hour up to 4 as a minimum, the longer it gets to work the better I think.
Being uncovered overnight lets most of the extra chlorine evaporate off as a gas.
A gallon of household bleach should be able to treat about 4 thousand gallons of water, but that depends on how dirty the water is.
Running the water through a coffee filter first the bleach has far fewer solids to try working through. Even a cloth will trap a lot of dirt and silt.
It is surprising sometimes how much silt can be in what looks like clear water. With dirty water it is just ridiculous, even a thin cloth can help as a pre-filter.
Note from the EPA:
http://www.epa.gov/OGWDW/faq/emerg.htmlYou can use a non-scented, household chlorine bleach that contains a chlorine compound to disinfect water.
Do not use non-chlorine bleach to disinfect water. Typically, household chlorine bleaches will be 5.25% available chlorine. Follow the procedure written on the label. When the necessary procedure is not given, find the percentage of available chlorine on the label and use the information in the following table as a guide. (Remember, 1/8 teaspoon and 8 drops are about the same quantity.)
Available Chlorine Drops per Quart/Gallon of Clear Water Drops per Liter of Clear Water
1% 10 per Quart - 40 per Gallon 10 per Liter
4-6% 2 per Quart - 8 per Gallon (1/8 teaspoon) 2 per Liter
7-10% 1 per Quart - 4 per Gallon 1 per Liter
(If the strength of the bleach is unknown, add ten drops per quart or liter of filtered and settled water. Double the amount of chlorine for cloudy, murky or colored water or water that is extremely cold.)
Mix the treated water thoroughly and allow it to stand, preferably covered, for 30 minutes. The water should have a slight chlorine odor. If not, repeat the dosage and allow the water to stand for an additional 15 minutes. If the treated water has too strong a chlorine taste, allow the water to stand exposed to the air for a few hours or pour it from one clean container to another several times.
Edit:
While I will drink clear water sources like lakes when I am not too close to the shore,(and there are no pollution sources like cottages) I am pretty careful about other sources and drink tea.
I am not worried about Giardia, but there are some other ones that do worry me.
Tularemia is one that worries me a bit, algae poisoning is another.
Edit 2:
If these guys who wrote that article saw the crap that comes off a lot of glaciers they should be a bit more cautious about drinking from glacier fed mountain streams.
You also have to be careful about the ground up stone particles in a lot of the higher streams.
One other small point.
Life in the water is a good sign usually. If any surface water has absolutely nothing living in it you should be wondering why.
last edit:
There are an awful lot of drops of bleach in a 4oz Nalgene sample bottle. Just be careful it does not leak.
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