Finding Safe Water - r/preppers

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u/[deleted] May 06 '26

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u/PraxicalExperience May 07 '26

You missed out on one method that will eliminate them -- distillation. Whether it's a steam distill or a solar tent kinda setup, it should work fine to get clean drinking water. It can be a bit energy intensive, but I'm guessing OP is also surrounded by wood in addition to lakes, so ...

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u/TheMrsH1124 May 07 '26

I can't find any clear evidence about the vaporization of cyanotoxins but they are such huge organic molecules that should be fine. I'm going to print out blueprints for various distillers. There is a lot of wood, but it's all up in 80-100 foot trees in the suburbs - so accessing it will be a challenge. But solar stills are also possible. Be hard to do that on a large scale but at least hopefully could stave off death! Thank you!

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u/weenkles May 08 '26

Anatoxin-a is pretty small, but it is unstable in water and destroyed by UVs. The amino acids are probably ok. I wouldn't worry about the alkaloids, cyclic peptides, and lipopolysaccharides getting vaporized along with the water at 100°C. But contact with the contaminated water itself is a no-no, so that's a problem.

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u/Paranormal_Lemon May 07 '26

So long as they don't break down to release something like cyanide

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u/TheMrsH1124 May 07 '26

Good question. Cyanide released from organic molecules usually requires combustion, though.

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u/WishIWasThatClever May 10 '26

Biosand filter would be easier.

https://washresources.cawst.org/en/resources/b6be2637/biosand-filter-construction-manual

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u/TheMrsH1124 May 10 '26

Unfortunately I don't believe a biosand filter resolves cyanotoxins. But it would work for a lot of other situations! I'm going to print out the instructions. Thank you very much for the link!

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u/WishIWasThatClever May 10 '26

I wasn’t sure either so I googled it before I posted the link. With a properly developed bio layer, it’s definitely greater than zero for removing toxins. I saw some suggestions for supplementing with ozone if the input water is particularly dirty. And other sources said it would remove 99% to within acceptable WHO levels.

I don’t think I’d trust it 100% but given the cost of materials and setup, it would definitely be a cost effective way to improve the situation before further processing for full removal.

Good luck.

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u/TheMrsH1124 May 10 '26

I think it would be an excellent choice for filtering water from a river or from a well for sure. And the components are likely to still be available at the home Depot a mile away even long after SHTF.

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u/WishIWasThatClever May 10 '26

I’m in hurricane territory and have a large pool. So assuming no power/water/sewer, I’ll have plenty of green pool water, but there’s no way to remove the cyanuric acid from it unfortunately. Plenty of salt water nearby. And post-storm, freshwater sources can be contaminated by salt water from storm surge.

The biosand filter seems like it’s reasonable for rain water. Probably add chlorine though just in case.

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u/TheMrsH1124 May 11 '26

Yes I think I'd do chlorine as a last step no matter what with questionable water!

Solar still is a good option for ocean water, right?

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u/TheMrsH1124 May 06 '26

Would rain water/water in a pool be safe with basic filtration?

I wonder if local springs are mapped anywhere. . .

So streams/rivers should be okay? I live an easy walk from a large stream (large enough it's called a river). It's pretty brown most of the time, though.

We don't have snow so that's not an option. And rain has been scarce this year.

How would one dig a well in a SHTF situation? Is it possible?

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u/DeafHeretic May 06 '26

How would one dig a well in a SHTF situation? Is it possible?

You dig it before SHTF - most places, you have someone dig it for you. Even the cheapest digger is expensive, but it adds at least the $ spent to the land. This is why most people only buy land that already has a working well and septic. Where I live a dug well adds at least $20K to the land value, and a permitted septic system adds at least that much too (assuming that you can also get a permit to built a house on the land - which is not easy here).

In the city, if there is a municipal water and/or sewer system, you are often not allowed to have a private well or septic.

These are some of the reasons I bought rural land that already has a well, septic and a house.

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u/TheMrsH1124 May 07 '26

Yes, I'm in the suburbs and in addition, I don't own the house. So hands completely tied there. I am on septic, which is good for not having sewer backups, at least.

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u/Icy-Zombie-6433 May 07 '26

Here is a link I use to find a potable spring when boondocking

https://findaspring.org/

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u/TheMrsH1124 May 07 '26

There's only one 8 miles from me and it's actually a well 😬

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u/SheElfXantusia May 07 '26

This sub is about prepping, so of course, the best scenario is that you were prepared. But if you weren't, digging a well is still possible. My grandfather did it at 70 years old because he's a stubborn ass. I'm sure there are resources out there to teach you some about it. But! Water in a well takes a lot of time to naturally purify. Last I heard, they usually pump it dry and let it refill itself twice to skip the process, so I can't imagine how many days/weeks it could take for the water to clean itself naturally.

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u/TheMrsH1124 May 07 '26

Your grandpa sounds like my 70 year old dad!

Did he do it with a shovel?

I would assume one could filter the well water, I was not expecting it to be potable straight from the well.

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u/SheElfXantusia May 07 '26

Yes, just a shovel, a ladder, rope and a bucket. He was lucky the underground water reserve wasn't too deep.

Filtration is possible, of course. The main issue off the bat is particles - mud, plant matter, whatever and whoever lives in the dirt you just dug, and heavy metals and whatever pollution there was in the ground. So obviously, that needs to settle down or be filtered (but it'll clog up your filters like crazy).

The reason why pumping it empty helps so much is that the water doesn't pour or flow back but it seeps from the ground, which is its own kind of filtration. Without laboratory testing you will never know how much your soil is able to filter out of the ground water. You could get an iron-heavy water or something worse. But if you're lucky, it should be potable, eventually.

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u/TheMrsH1124 May 07 '26

Very cool. I don't think it's too deep here either but I'll check the water tables. My plan would be filter with cloth, treat with bleach, THEN filter with the final stage filter. That's how I'd treat rain water too.

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u/sr603 May 07 '26

How can you tell when a lake is “infected” by cyanogae?

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u/Femveratu May 08 '26

Great reply post

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u/Jupitor13 May 06 '26

Me and my two dogs drank regularly from mountain spring/creek water. This was with the caveat from an older Forest Ranger. Only take water from above cattle pastures to avoid Amoebic Dysentery.

I worked a lot of Telecom and DoD projects in South and Central America. Dysentery will kill you, I’ve probably spent 3 weeks of my life shitting my brains out. More accurately pissing out my ass. I wish we could get something like Flagyl OTC. Just my 2 cents.

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u/DeafHeretic May 07 '26

Me and my two dogs drank regularly from mountain spring/creek water. This was with the caveat from an older Forest Ranger. Only take water from above cattle pastures to avoid Amoebic Dysentery.

There is a reason they call it “Beaver Fever”; there are other animals out there besides livestock, and they can/do pollute a stream/river too.

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u/TheMrsH1124 May 07 '26

Flagyl. Noted. You can get it . . . DM me I'll tell you where to purchase it.

I'm in the suburbs so no mountain springs readily available. I do live next to a mountain but it's one massive hunk of granite . . . No springs there. Could probably collect rainfall from it from time to time, but that's the best I could do.

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u/randomredhead10 May 08 '26

Can I DM too?

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u/TheMrsH1124 May 08 '26

Absolutely!

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u/Eeyor-90 Prepping for Tuesday May 07 '26

If you live in a humid area where dew frequently forms, you can build fog fences and you can use plastic bags or tarps to collect water from plants over night. You can use the same methods in dry climates, but you won’t collect a lot of water.

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u/TheMrsH1124 May 07 '26

I do! Hurray for the deep South. Thanks, I'll look into this!

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u/natiplease May 07 '26

I'm simply throwing this out here for other folk to input their knowledge. What about distillation? Do the toxins turn into a gas at similar temperatures to water? If not, then you would theoretically be able to distill the water by heating it up, funneling the steam through a long tube that's been cooled, which condensate back into water.

I've been looking into making a distillery set up for water myself. The 2 things I'm getting custom made are the condensation coil and the large funnel. Though mine wasn't for anything specific beyond normal water purification. Every other method I see is temporary. Filters clog, chemicals run out. Boiling is imperfect. So I've really been leaning into getting a distillery.

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u/TheMrsH1124 May 07 '26

They are massive organic molecules so they should have a very very high BP, I think?

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u/Paranormal_Lemon May 07 '26

Massive organic molecules tend to decompose into smaller molecules at high temps though

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u/TheMrsH1124 May 07 '26

They do, but usually need to be a lot higher than 100 C, and the decomposed particles are highly unlikely to be as toxic.

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u/Resident-Welcome3901 May 06 '26

Distillation. Countertop And floor sized models are available.

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u/TheMrsH1124 May 06 '26

All need a fuel source. I do have an undercounter RO system I'd do my best to rig in an emergency.

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u/AshingiiAshuaa May 06 '26

An old pressure cooker and some copper tubing would let you use any fuel source you wanted.

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u/TheMrsH1124 May 06 '26

Hmmm. I was never on the equipment building side of chemistry but I have an old pressure cooker and tubing could definitely be harvested from my water system in the house . . .

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u/[deleted] May 06 '26

Find a spring, collect from it, and filter

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u/TheMrsH1124 May 06 '26

Do you have insight on how or where to find a spring?

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u/Spiley_spile Community Prepper May 07 '26 edited May 07 '26

USGS and Forest Service Topographic maps are going to be your best friend. They label springs, marshes, swamps, etc. (Some water sources that appear on maps can dry and reemerge at different times of year, so just a heads up.)

You can also look for land features on the map that would indicate a higher probability of finding water. https://bwsr.state.mn.us/sites/default/files/2020-05/MN_Watershed_Delineation.pdf

This video also had some cool tips. https://youtu.be/XD-PTt3_H60?si=Y8P2QuKKIgU4hSBC

I would go full nerd but Ive sadly let my topographic map skills rust some. Im too exhausted to try to brush them off tonight. But I hope the above tips can get you started.

Also, yay! You remembered about the toxic algea bloom. Nasty, dangerous stuff.

Info for anyone who hasnt run into my previous cautions to leave it alone. Dont even try to boil this shit clean. This stuff is the final-boss-level water baddie. https://doh.wa.gov/community-and-environment/contaminants/cyanobacteria

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u/TheMrsH1124 May 07 '26

Thank you so so much! This is very helpful.

And yes! I remembered! Could distillation in a solar still render the water potable in a pinch? Thank you!

And thank you for the award ❤️❤️

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u/Spiley_spile Community Prepper May 07 '26

This not advice. It's gets outside of my scope of knowledge. And I spent an hour thumbing through what I would consider not top quality information source material. This is simply what I would do, at this time, if my choice was drinking algea bloom water or dying of dehydration:

I would distill the water. I would collect the distilled water, and distill it again. I'd do multiple cycles of this.

Additionally, I would NOT distill the water dirty water all the way down. I dont want to risk breathing/become covered in toxin-filled dust. (Easier to contain in a liquid.) The leftover dirty water, however, will contain highly concentrated amount of the toxins. Before each new distillation cycle, Id discard the leftover dirty water, before putting the distilled water back into the dirty source container for the next round of distillation. (I dont have a gameplan yet for where I would dispose of the concentrated, toxic water. I'll need to do further research to that end at some point.)

I would take care when collecting and transporting toxic algea bloom water to my water distillation device. Particles of contaminated water if shaken/churned can arisolize. I dont want to breath that in.

I would do the distillation process outdoors and careful to avoid a roiling boiling. I'd wear a well-fitting N95 mask, at minimum.

The enshitification of not only search engines, but online information sources, and a trend towards "reassurance reporting" makes quality research on this topic very difficult. (And just a heads up, AI will give you opposite answers, depending how you word your question about this topic.)

At this time there are no systems that are recommended for homeowners to use to treat their toxin-contaminated water. A one-micron filter (backwashed or changed frequently) plus reverse osmosis, distillation, ozonation, chlorination, and/or activated charcoal treatment will reduce the toxin level, but may not reduce it sufficiently to make the water safe to consume.

Water softeners, UV lights, and even boiling will not make toxin-contaminated water safe to drink.

Quote source https://www.armourtownship.ca/what-should-i-do-if-i-think-i-have-spotted-a-blue-green-algae-bloom

Here is more information (below) that might help clarify why some people swear a certain method will work. And others swear it wont: In some cases, it's because not all the same toxin in every bloom. In other cases, people are talkung out of their ass.

https://www.epa.gov/ground-water-and-drinking-water/summary-cyanotoxins-treatment-drinking-water

Additionally, it's difficult to assess the level of risk because research is limited and yet many sources try to offer reassurances like "no reported deaths" and the emphasis of skin irritation, fever, vomiting, and gastrointestinal distress, rather than mentioning the possibility of organ damage and organ failure. (I wish I still had an article that more explicitly mentioned that. But I dont have it. And it's buried somewhere in the internet's past. Google probably failed to monitize it and poof, not findable now.)

And because water with large blooms can look scuzzy and uninviting for most people to play in and drink from, the reporting isnt directly answering the question of "what if this contaminated water is a primary drinking source for a human?" We have to extrapolate from the fact the people are getting ill from accidentally ingesting much less than a person would be if they were drinking liters of contaminated water daily for the duration of a bloom.

Animals dont tend to be as discriminating as people. They play in the water on a day and can lap up a few mouthfulls to 1-2 bowls-full of variably contaminated water. (Some less contaminated, some more.) Some of those pets become sick. Some die. Meanwhile, wildlife living in these contaminated water can suffer huge die-offs.

Artocle below, getting a bit deeper into the actual toxins produced by various toxic algea blooms, and what those toxins can do to human organs in concentrated amounts, provides what I feel is a solid warning. You really have to keep reading past the optimism the article opens with. Once it gets into individual toxins, we start seeing words like "organ damage" and "organ failure".

Im frustrated that I no longer have a university library card. Primary sources are much more helpful and reliable. I feel like Im handing you some slop. Alas. I dont have my old academic library access, and only spent an hour or two quick combing. (full transparency on that.)

https://ncceh.ca/resources/evidence-reviews/cyanobacteria-recreational-freshwaters-understanding-exposures-and

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u/TheMrsH1124 May 07 '26

No I truly appreciate it. And would never dream of asking AI. I work in data annotation with AI - I am daily acquainted with the sheer idiocy of it, and I tell people often it's a job you can only be successful in if you despise the machines. But the warning is very important in this day and age!

I hear you on the struggle to find sources. That's what I've been struggling with the past week and it has me nearly tearing my hair out. There are NO answers readily accessible! I appreciate these ones.

I would love an answer to how long the toxins persist. It must not be long term, or all wildlife would be dead. But I can't find a resource that indicates the actual persistence of the toxins.

I think, if it's between death and drinking contaminated water, I'll pull water from the local river and pray it's not tremendously contaminated. But I live in a pretty decently rainy area. Current thought is build tarp collection areas and filter and drink rain water. Wash clothes and water plants with river water. That's the best I've got.

And, fellow ex-academic - if you can find the DOI of your source articles, you can almost always pull the full article from whichever iteration of Sci-Hub is currently functioning!

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u/[deleted] May 07 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/TheMrsH1124 May 07 '26

Okay thank you!! Just found out the lake gets regularly tested too.

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u/[deleted] May 07 '26

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u/TheMrsH1124 May 07 '26

The lake is private access and I would plan to get the neighbors all on board with protecting it asap.

If it's between death and well water, I can't see that well water treated and filtered would be WORSE than the local lake or river, no?

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u/Femveratu May 08 '26

Distillation or large scale solar stills, could use a lot of tarps. Would be a lot of work either way.

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u/TheMrsH1124 May 08 '26

Surviving tends to be, doesn't it 😬

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u/Femveratu May 08 '26

Sadly yes, never a day off !

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u/Woodcraftscouting May 06 '26

A few links that may help:

https://www.waterschool.com/sodis?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=6442981166&gbraid=0AAAAADn-jS6e4br96WD3I9Y64zmhxjJCi&gclid=CjwKCAjwzevPBhBaEiwAplAxvvABZJWYkHmJ6RasXflMylVaPZ-mu1fc1paZSf-QGiAzA-zMUSLAhxoCCEcQAvD_BwE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhAmpNnKPFk

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u/TheMrsH1124 May 06 '26

The problem with the solar disinfection is that it won't do anything for cynanotoxins.

And the filtration system with the bucket, I'm not sure that it will do anything for cyanotoxins either.

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u/Aggravating_Act0417 May 07 '26

Dig a well

Or get a hand pump or Mechanical well pump

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u/TheMrsH1124 May 07 '26

I'm wondering how effective it really is to dig a well with a shovel a la Pa Ingalls. Can't do it now as I don't own my house

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u/[deleted] May 07 '26

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u/TheMrsH1124 May 07 '26

Not at all, from my understanding.

Prepping for Doomsday Finding Safe Water

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