" If you're desperate, and need of water goo ahead and drink even if it's not safe", as the Wilderness Survival merit badge book says. This is of course only for the most desperate times, when you have no ways of purifying water(although I know this will never happen to me after learning all the useful hints from y'all), but what if the water has chemicals in it? Is there a ways of removing practicly all chemicals from water?

unless there is a very heavy contaimination, the chemicals shouldn't pose a problem in a short term situation. it's long time exposure to chemicals that causes dangers. but still i wouldn't want to drink it.

But you could improvise a carbon filter. Charcoal is a form of carbon, so you could filter your water through some charcoal to remove the chemical parcially. Wenn you making one of those you might as well add other layer in the filter to clean the water further up. ( see places like these: http://therangerdigest.com/Tips___Tricks...fying_water.htm )

There are others here that know far more about this than I do but based on what I have learned from previous discussions and research on the subject I believe that your best bet is charcoal filtering and/or the evaporation/condensation method. Evaporation/condesation methods such as solar stills are often difficult or impractical to set up in a manner that would yield enough water to justify the effort involved. Charcoal filtering is easier to improvise than most evaporation/condesation rigs but still easier said than done, so practicing before youre in a situation would be extremely beneficial.

It would seem to me that in many situations clean water is easier to find then most may suspect. Dew is an excellent source of clean water as long as you're not pulling it off of poisonous plants. Rain water is also a great source of clean water provided you're not in an area known to have excessive air pollution. A variety of non-poisonous plants are also a source of clean water.

Tongue-in-cheek-reply.

Yes, get rid of "civilized" people!

Bountyhunter <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I have heard of sand filters, but don't know anything about them. My first thought is that they would just be used for filtering debris, rather than toxins. Yes?

Sue

I heard once that the ash from a wood fire works well to chealate bacteria, organice molecules and dirt. Add ash to water bottle, shake well. let stand. Either filter out the ash with a rag or let it settle and decant off the water.

Can anyone confirm this to be true?

i THINK i'VE HEARD OF THAT DONE. i'LL LOOK IT UP ON INTERNET

neuronboy No that won't do. That is how you make lye by running water through wood ashes. Now I don't know about you but I treally wouldn't want to drink lye even if it is greatly deluted.

A sand filter is suppose to be a way to remove most solids from water. And charcoal does remove most chemical compounds. So you can make a several layered filter combining both. I would still boil or better yet distill the result just to be safe.

The best charcoal to use is activated charcoal. The difference is the charcoal is heated to high temps. under pressure with steam. Something like 900 degrees. Much beyond the capacity of most. What this does is somehow opens up the charcoal to expose much more surface area. The surface is what captures the contaminants.

Using regular charcoal would require much more that activated. So it would need to be changed out more frequently.

How about a solar still?

-john

With ash you can cure green olives. As other poster mentioned, it is a highly alcali stuff so it works like lye.

Oh, yes, and olives processed with ash are yum yum !!