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#255651 - 01/20/13 12:26 AM Water purification: filtering and backflushing.
rafowell Offline
Enthusiast

Registered: 11/29/09
Posts: 261
Loc: Southern California
Water purification is not my area of expertise*, but I ran across this recent ( 2 days ago) post of an experience in hiking the Grand Canyon where the river water had enough suspended solids to require filtering, but the filter required backflushing to make it usable again.

Backflushing saved my life

Nice photos of their hike and other equipment, too.

*I do have a Katadyn pocket microfilter as backup in case disaster takes out the local water system for longer than our disaster water bottles last (they claim it is good for 13,000 gallons, and I hope our swimming pool or our neighbor's will retain raw water to process). I looked in that manual to see what they advised when the filter clogged, and they say to use the provided rag to wipe it clean. Given my expected use, I don't expect much of a clogging problem, but Colorado river water is another situation entirely.


Edited by rafowell (01/20/13 12:26 AM)
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#255653 - 01/20/13 02:42 AM Re: Water purification: filtering and backflushing. [Re: rafowell]
hikermor Offline
Geezer in Chief
Geezer

Registered: 08/26/06
Posts: 7705
Loc: southern Cal
My, such drama!! Actually, they would have been fine if they had 1)simply let the water settle overnight, 2)decant the upper portion, and then boil briefly. I followed this procedure when working in Canyon de Chelly one fine June when the winter runoff was extremely high, rendering the site at which we were excavating (Antelope House) in accessible y motor vehicle. Our only option was to hike down a nearby trail and work and camp at the site, utilizing the water flowing in del Muerto Creek, which was "too thick to drink and too thin to plow." Del Muerto is within the Colorado River drainage so this is actually relevant. We operated in this manner for about three or four weeks before we were able to resume our normal access and utilize normal water. We experienced zero problems drinking del Muerto water, processed as described. There were sheep and people living upstream from us and there were no sewage treatment facilities within miles....

I don't believe the article pinpointed their location within Grand Canyon, but there are quite a few seeps and springs there that furnish quality drinking water, needing minimal or no processing. But you must be mindful and alert. A quality map helps enormously.
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