is drinking mountain spring water safe?

[Aaron Rushton]

hi all,
I just remembered this from a while back so here goes. Last summer i went on a charity hike with my school. We were in the brecon beacons, climbing pen y fan It was a very hot day and despspite bringing 2 canteens, i ran out of water by the time i reached the top of pen y fan. i am very familiar with this area as i have been on many hikes and camping trips with both my explorer scout group and family. I was stopped whilst reaching down to fill my water from one of the numerous clear, fast running, peat free (when your high enough) springs which run down from the top. I fill my bottle from these all the time, whenever on hikes or camping trips, and so do the scout leaders usually. The teacher told me it was not clean water. I restrained from arguing back as i know they can't let me do anything out health and safety regulations, but i went back down the mountain without water which was a bit of a bother. There are sheep on the mountain, but that high up there is very little distance from where the spring springs and where i filled my bottle, so surely the amount of sheep poo in it must be tiny? basically, what im asking is if its safe to drink from these mountain springs? what are safe, natural water sources? im sure it is, but just wanted to double check with the fountain of knowledge that is NB.
ATB
Aaron

[Martin]

Probably. ;)

Martin

[Aaron Rushton]

fills me with confidence martin :P

[Martin]

Ha ha, sorry Aaron. You're almost certainly safe but have you seen the last Dartmoor item challenge video with the dead cow? We all took water from the river down stream of that!!

Martin

[Peaks]

Hi,
Its probably safe, but just to be really safe, I've gone over to using the Drinksafe systems travel tap bottle and also have the straw. They also have the advantage of flexibility for use travelling in foreign parts or for everyday use. The straw is really neat and slips into a pack easily.
http://www.drinksafe-systems.co.uk/products.php

There are other similar types of pathogen/chemical filter bottles out there. I've no affiliation - just wanted to buy a British product and and I'm very pleased with the products and the quality of service.

[Fletching]

I've drunk mountain spring water with no problem, but better to be safe than sorry. Remember, the closer you are to the source, the purer the water will be. If you do not have any purification aids with you, you can always use the old boiling method to be absolutely sure.

Steve :)

[paulthefish2009]

While we are on the subject,what if any method do members use to filter there collected water? I'm not as adventuras as some on here and have never been in the situation where i needed to fill up from a wild source although i have drunk from the hampshire avon only because it looked so inviting! Paul

[jus_young]

Even from spring water there is still the possibility of bacterial contamination. Giardia and Cryptosporidium are not perticularly nice and can be found in water taken directly from the 'source'.

I use one of these (http://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/dalesman-frontier-pro-filter-p143744) for filtration that takes most things out down to 3 microns but Cryptosporidium can be smaller still so this is backed up with sterilization from these (http://www.greenmanbushcraft.co.uk/outdoor-kitchen/water/water-purification-tablets.htm).

[Martin]

Like Jus says, there is always the possibility so no one is going to say anything is 100% safe. I have drunk from streams in high moorland areas, mainly in England, but also in Wales and Scotland for around 30 years and I've never had a problem. I have a 'Travel Tap' but never take it out with me as it's a hassle and I always carry puritabs and rarely use them, although I must admit that I did during the summer on Dartmoor last year.

Martin

[Peaks]

Like others I've drunk for years out of mountain streams with no ill effects. I stopped doing doing so when I lived up in the North Pennines and there were restrictions for years on sheep movements following Chernobyl.

Personally I find the Travel-tap a doddle to use - just fill it and drink from it. That was the main attraction for me. I fill it up from home before I go out and replenish it if required. But as with so many other things in this hobby of ours, personal preferences are what make it fun.

[Fletching]

While we are on the subject,what if any method do members use to filter there collected water? I'm not as adventuras as some on here and have never been in the situation where i needed to fill up from a wild source although i have drunk from the hampshire avon only because it looked so inviting! Paul

Milbank + boil. :)

[happybonzo]

Giardia (spelling?) is on the increase in the UK so sterilise all water

[Entbane]

When i was a kid i use to drink from rivers and streams running through upland and lowland farmland and never suffered any ill effects. I wouldnt do it now as i know about the parisites you could potentially pick up (harmless or not). I still drink now and then from fast flowing water on dartmoor and am never ill. But you never know! I met a bushcraft instuctor who drank from what he thought was the purest river he had ever seen while trecking in the U.S and he got so ill he had to be flown home.

[FishyFolk]

Here in North Norway, i just make sure there is nothing like a farm or other activity going on up hill of me, and if the water looks clean I drink. Never had a problem.
I stay away from water like that after heavy rains though.

In the winter I just melt some snow with my multifuel stove (just make sure it's white snow. Stay away from the yellow kind :happy-clapping: )

[SimonB]

Like a lot of others, I have drank water from springs, where it literally came out of the ground, and had no ill effects...

If in doubt, boil it.....

And if you can't. a trick we used was to sill a sock with sand and charcoal......... and run the water through that and collect it from the end of the sock.. seemed to get rid of the big bits of debrit, and the charcoal acts like a filter for finer stuff... makes water clearer, and to a certain degree safer, but we'd always steritab what came out to make 100% sure....... I have never been one for trusting tricks like UV sunlight, and distilling is tedious at best...

[jus_young]

For those new to the water collection and treatment scenario, always remember that there are two different stages to making water suitable to drink, one is filtration and the other is purification.

Filtration takes out particulate matter, for example leaves or fine grit. This can be done a number of different ways including the DIY plastic bottle stuffed with grass, sand and some charcoal from the fire. The process may also take out larger bacteria and pathogens but this is not guaranteed. The high tech filters that are now commercially available are just filters with the difference being that they are so fine that bacteria are also removed but not killed in the process unless something specific is contained within the filters construction to facilitate this. The drawback being with these can be a reduced flow due to the fine nature of the filtration media.

Purification is the process of killing the bugs, viruses and other harmful nasties. Again there are a number of options available, the application of various chemicals or UV just being two, but its the nasties that we cannot see that make us ill so these must be dealt with.

Something else to consider if you regularly drink from natural sources is the possibility that harmful metals may also be present but suitable filtration can remove these also. Charcoal is commonly used to take out odour and taste from water rather than aid in the filtration or purification process. Whatever methods you choose to use, just make sure that you choose your water source carefully and any sign of illness in the following days is checked out as some of those bugs can be quite serious!

[biker-bri]

I was in Scotland last week, staying in a caravan near the end of loch Shiel on the Ardnamurchan peninsular, in the welcome pack there was a note telling everyone that the drinking water came direct from source (three dams on the hills) and in times of drought should not be wasted.
Well we had no problem with the drought bit and after talking to the locals found out that the water was only filtered and NOT chemically treated, it had a brownish hue, tasted better than most bottled water and combined with the tea folks best made a damn fine brew. We were also told the best place to watch deer was from a small rock outcrop above one of the dams as they used it as a watering hole!! - well we didn't get the chance to go deer watching but given half a chance we would go back tomorrow.
Cheers Bri

[jus_young]

I was in Scotland last week, staying in a caravan near the end of loch Shiel on the Ardnamurchan peninsular, in the welcome pack there was a note telling everyone that the drinking water came direct from source (three dams on the hills) and in times of drought should not be wasted.
Well we had no problem with the drought bit and after talking to the locals found out that the water was only filtered and NOT chemically treated, it had a brownish hue, tasted better than most bottled water and combined with the tea folks best made a damn fine brew. We were also told the best place to watch deer was from a small rock outcrop above one of the dams as they used it as a watering hole!! - well we didn't get the chance to go deer watching but given half a chance we would go back tomorrow.
Cheers Bri

You see some stomach churning things working on private treatment plants. I have lost count of how many times I have been out on jobs where the owners are kind enough to make a cup of tea, to find out after drinking it that there are partially decomposed moles, mice or rats in the blocked up pumps and filters that I went out to fix. You would think that I would have learnt by now but you never turn down a cuppa when its offered.

[biker-bri]

You see some stomach churning things working on private treatment plants. I have lost count of how many times I have been out on jobs where the owners are kind enough to make a cup of tea, to find out after drinking it that there are partially decomposed moles, mice or rats in the blocked up pumps and filters that I went out to fix. You would think that I would have learnt by now but you never turn down a cuppa when its offered.

Err Thanks !! I think, turns green & runs for the loo.

[AL...]

Best water I have ever tasted was on the Isle of Oronsay . It comes from an underground spring.
Will be heading back there again next year .. Well thats the plan :)

Cheers
AL

[Tigger004]

I'm With Peaks on this one, I have drunk water from a quite disturbingly dirty and smelly canal in Derbyshire through a Drinksafe water straw, excellent and pretty cheap too, I also use the 3 in 1 micro filter from Drinksafe with a bottle adapter and use it a bit like a camel back on a 1ltr 7-up bottle filled from streams, hope this helps

Ps. The Micro filter has the advantage of producing clean water for uses other than direct thirst quenching ie, sharing / cooking etc

[twosmokeforever]

i'm sure you would be fine, and if I was dying of thurst I would. but is it worth the risk? as a lad my old man was telling it was safe to drink from a chalk stream then we found the dead sheep

boil it, tab safe or these filters is my thoughts

everyone has different levels of immunity some maybe fine others may not be, today we took a shopping trolley out of our river which I have cut up to make a nice grill to put over our open fire. goes to show what ends up in there

[Mountain Goat]

I've drunk from mountain streams in Ireland plenty of times and never got sick from t, although my cousins's entire family once drank beneath a dead sheep and were sick for a week. Best boil it and be safe.

[OakAshandThorn]

Spring water is almost always safe to drink, provided that no animal took a dump or is decaying as a carcass in it. It is always best to follow the water to its source to check. This minimizes the chance of filling your canteen with disease contaminated water.
I absolutely LOVE mountain spring water. I am quite fortunate to live across the street (literally) from a 900 acre wilderness in which there are 5 springs. 2 are on a small mountain (roughly 275 meters at the summit), and even in the heat of summer, the water is very cool, and quite refreshing. :D

[_Matt_]

Do sheep like dying next to water or something?