[at-l] the mindset/ logic for no water treatment...

[kahley7@ptd.net (kahley7)]

At 05:02 PM 4/5/01 -0700, Sloetoe wrote:

>### What of the _natural_ pathogens/pollutants? You and I are both
>ecologically aware enough to know that the biota we *don't* see is putting
>much more poop, pee, dead body decay, etc. into the watershed than the
>great storied "dead deer floating around the next corner." But somehow
>we're supposed to worry more about 100 pounds of cow manure we *can* see
>than the 4000 pounds of mouse and catepillar shit we forget about. Phooey.
>It's ALL part of the great mix of life on this little blue dot, and in the
>woods, the filtering provided by most watersheds (or geologies, for the
>mountainside springs) provides all the filtering that a logical person
>could need. (OK, "IMNSHO".) 

The water that does percolate through the ground, or rather stone layers, could be 
viewed as filtered, but what about that which flows along/thru the duff to reach the
stream or spring.  I think that's called runoff <g>? How is that filtered?

>How could you swim in your beloved Susquehanna
>without reconciling yourself to the inevitable ingestion of unfiltered
>water? It's ok to ingest while swimming, but if you put the same water in
>a glass, you'd want it filtered. (To a degree, I'm the same way, but we're
>humans.)

That's just why I asked.  My beloved Susquehanna, or more specifically,
the West Branch of same.  (I don't swim in the North Branch...yucky yucky...
even as a kidlette, we'd walk the half mile over the bridge or at least most of the
way and then jump in the west branch side.)  I do swim in that water.  I don't drink 
it except the T. or so that I can't help per day.  The communities along the river 
don't drink it without putting it thru all kinds of chems and filters and then i still don't 
drink it.  

Last summer, I spent two weeks participating in a survey to count the number and species
of victims of a fish kill.  I cruised for days, under water, trying to find a dying fish that
could be caught and iced down before it died and transported to a lab for examination.
No luck...they were all already dead.  But the scene was for sure, surreal, and really
put the issue on the table.  The water was just as clear as always.  Nothing looked
out of whack.  It had been repeatedly tested for contaminants..nada.  It was a 
natural occurrence, of unknown origin.  Some species specific virus was a thought,
until the kills were reported in watersheds everywhere east of the Miss.  Still could
be the virus with an unknown transport method.  Unknown, unknown, unknown.

Anyway..I am rambling....Maybe I've spent so much time under the water and see
so much life (and death) there that I have problems just drinking it.  Every drop has
carcasses in it.  Everydrop has feces and urine in it and sperm and ova and whole
live critters.

Are our citified systems up to it?  I guess yours is, but I think of the thruhiker I talked to
who showed me the bag of meds he was packing to combat the multiple (like 6 or 7) foreign
fauna and flora he had living in his gut.  I remember posting about it here!  Not everyone
can get away with just drinking, even if they can accept the esthetics.

Even the idea that it's safe to drink "above civilization" would be okay from a chemical 
contamination viewpoint if it weren't for the wind and the rain which precipitates the 
pollutants out of the air.  We have stark witness of that here in Pa, down wind from a
zinc plant.   Plus the farmers coat the land with all sorts of stuff that bonds with the
dust  which is picked up by the wind and dumped on the mountains in who knows
what levels.  And of course, if there were no hikers around with less than sterling LNT 
practices who view the spring as their toilet bowl.

I'm not trying to change your views Toey....honest.  I'm really just curious as to the mindset.
I just can't get by that knowledge thing....
Would be great to drop that extra half pound of filter AND the hassle.  Remember 
the Fletcher image of attaching his sierra cup to his staff and just snatching cup
after cup as he walked along the river?  But in my mind, I keep thinking of a spring
near here.  A perfect spring..high stone walls to keep out runoff from the forest.... 
clearly a true spring and not a re-emerged underground stream.  I
walked up to it and startled a bird who had been bathing.  In fact, I scared the shit
out of him and it slowly dissolved in the crystal clear water......  yucky yucky ptoo ptooui.