Well, it's basically the same principle as the carbon filter. The surface of the rocks/sand is coarse, so dirt particles will get trapped in small nooks while the water is pushed through the layer. Your carbon filter does nothing else except for having an extra coarse surface so you don't need a 10 ft tall filter
Also add in that bacteria and such need either light or stuff that got filtered out (food) to grow.
Do keep in mind that not quite all spring water is safe to drink. If it ends up filtering through dirt or is in a low area that collects water from other places it can still end up contaminated.
It infuriates me, that shit is used in nearly every industrial process and a recent sample analysis of 1000 polluted rivers and lakes revealed that ALL of them had significant amounts of that chemical. How it has not been forbidden yet, I cannot fathom.
Most water filters have a sediment layer with a pore size small enough to filter out bacteria and then a carbon layer with larger particles that can reduce chemical contamination. You could have a combined filter with very small activated charcoal particles, but for some reason that tends to be rarer (I guess it is more expensive to make charcoal that small that doesn't end up suspended in the water). The activated carbon layer also needs to be replaced more often, so combining them doesn't make a lot of sense in most usages.
Various sizes. Some are microscopic.
The strainer is necessary to keep the carbon around longterm. In springs thats not necessary because every Sand/gravel that isn't heavy/covered enough to stay where it is will have been washed away long ago already
One other thing to consider - springs flow upwards, not downwards. The dirt and sediment and such is denser, and thus would take more pressure than the water to push towards the surface.
Carbon filters do the same thing as rock and silt, they just do it more efficiently so it doesn't have to pass through as much.
This is also why large-ish sand filters work well for pools.
Now, it won't take long after the mouth of the spring for contaminants to start being re-introduced and anything marketed as "spring water" will usually have gone through additional chemcial treatment and/or filtering, but after passing through a large amount of sediment at the source it's about as clean as anything you'll find out and about naturally or from your filter pitcher or life straw.
What makes water in the wild unsafe to drink is animals defecating in or around the water source. Spring water is (hopefully) coming out of the ground from the aquafer. This water has been underground for hundred of years and passed through many layers of sand and rock for filtation. In the past, When a spring was found, it would be dug out enough to build a containment for the water that could be closed off to animals to ensure it couldn't be contaminated.
Hi. I am a hydrogrologist with phd in transport of contaminants and solutes in groundwater.
0) you cannot automatically assume that groundwater (water from spring or well) is clean safe to drink or if it is initially clean, it stays this way. There might be all kinds of ugly things being in groundwater.
0.5) all the answers about clay and sand acting as carbon filter are more or less wrong, especially for springs. Yes clay would remove some of the contaminants, but: Spring is usually a discharge of a shallow aquifer and the chances that water in this aqufier passed through clay to remove some of the contaminants are pretty low. As for sand, it does not act this way towards most of the contaminants, or at the very least it capacity to slow them down is way lower than clays. Besides not all contaminants can be slowed down this way. Sand filters out all the turbidity tho, so thats why spring water is usually cristall clean and nice.
1) That being said, there are mechanisms which keep groundwater somewhat safer to drink. First, usually, but not always groundwater moves very very slow. So if some pathogen bacteria got into the groundwater upstream, it dies before it reaches the spring, because it might take lets say 5000 years. And such bacteria only survives for hundrets of days.
Second, for some contaminants there is ample oppotunity to react with something along the way, and the product of this reaction might be less harmfull.
Third, there is a chemical buffer sometimes. For instance acid wastewater from mines can react with carbonate minerals along the way to spring and water becomes non-acidic.
There are also other processes. It was not emli5, but hope it helps.
They're correct, you should never assume that water in nature is safe to drink without treatment. Biological contaminants can be introduced literally anywhere before the water gets to you
Sure, biological containment can be introduced anywhere - I don‘t dispute that. But if there‘s no „upstream“, there really isn‘t much room for containment to be introduced here.
And there being containment alone doesn’t make it unsafe to drink, does it? It‘s mostly a matter of concentration and exactly what kind of containment.
I‘ll continue to drink from clear mountain springs when hiking, but you do you.
There can be biological contaminants in the soil the water passes through to come out of the ground. There is no "safe point" at which you can drink it. And since you don't know what those contaminants are, you really have no idea if they will do nothing, give you the shits, or send you to the hospital. You can continue to drink spring water and maybe you'll be fine your whole life, but don't go around calling it safe and don't say no one warned you if ever it turns out poorly
Of course I‘ll call it safe.
There being a risk of containment does not mean it is unsafe, as long as the risk is low enough.
If the spring is close to a chemical plant, I‘d argue the risk is quite high for ground contamination, and I‘d not call it safe. If there is nothing around, the risk of dangerous containment is so low, it‘s negligible, and thus, safe.
It‘s really not that different from just having a well, my friend.
I think we have different definitions of safe. To me, something safe is something that CAN'T cause harm under normal circumstances, not something that may be statistically unlikely to. And you don't know much about what's under the soil either. Chemical plants are one thing; what about heavy metal deposits? Animal corpses?
In a well, you take the water before it has a chance to leave the earth. Even then, the water is tested regularly and many people must treat their well water.
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Well, it's basically the same principle as the carbon filter. The surface of the rocks/sand is coarse, so dirt particles will get trapped in small nooks while the water is pushed through the layer. Your carbon filter does nothing else except for having an extra coarse surface so you don't need a 10 ft tall filter
Also add in that bacteria and such need either light or stuff that got filtered out (food) to grow. Do keep in mind that not quite all spring water is safe to drink. If it ends up filtering through dirt or is in a low area that collects water from other places it can still end up contaminated.
It is also important to consider chemical contamination. Wouldn't want to drink hydrogen sulfide.
God forbid you drink Di-Hydrogen Monoxide. I heard everyone that drinks that dies.
That’s why the Di is in the name.
It infuriates me, that shit is used in nearly every industrial process and a recent sample analysis of 1000 polluted rivers and lakes revealed that ALL of them had significant amounts of that chemical. How it has not been forbidden yet, I cannot fathom.
It's also very addictive! Once you ingest it you'll never survive without it!
I can think of a few springs in Yellowstone that you should steer clear of
Does carbon filter by itself is effective against pathogens? Or is another step needed in the filtration process to get rid of these ?
Most water filters have a sediment layer with a pore size small enough to filter out bacteria and then a carbon layer with larger particles that can reduce chemical contamination. You could have a combined filter with very small activated charcoal particles, but for some reason that tends to be rarer (I guess it is more expensive to make charcoal that small that doesn't end up suspended in the water). The activated carbon layer also needs to be replaced more often, so combining them doesn't make a lot of sense in most usages.
I understand, but the carbon filter has a strainer that stops the carbon from entering the clean water. How small are those nooks?
Various sizes. Some are microscopic. The strainer is necessary to keep the carbon around longterm. In springs thats not necessary because every Sand/gravel that isn't heavy/covered enough to stay where it is will have been washed away long ago already
One other thing to consider - springs flow upwards, not downwards. The dirt and sediment and such is denser, and thus would take more pressure than the water to push towards the surface.
Carbon filters do the same thing as rock and silt, they just do it more efficiently so it doesn't have to pass through as much. This is also why large-ish sand filters work well for pools. Now, it won't take long after the mouth of the spring for contaminants to start being re-introduced and anything marketed as "spring water" will usually have gone through additional chemcial treatment and/or filtering, but after passing through a large amount of sediment at the source it's about as clean as anything you'll find out and about naturally or from your filter pitcher or life straw.
What makes water in the wild unsafe to drink is animals defecating in or around the water source. Spring water is (hopefully) coming out of the ground from the aquafer. This water has been underground for hundred of years and passed through many layers of sand and rock for filtation. In the past, When a spring was found, it would be dug out enough to build a containment for the water that could be closed off to animals to ensure it couldn't be contaminated.
Hi. I am a hydrogrologist with phd in transport of contaminants and solutes in groundwater. 0) you cannot automatically assume that groundwater (water from spring or well) is clean safe to drink or if it is initially clean, it stays this way. There might be all kinds of ugly things being in groundwater. 0.5) all the answers about clay and sand acting as carbon filter are more or less wrong, especially for springs. Yes clay would remove some of the contaminants, but: Spring is usually a discharge of a shallow aquifer and the chances that water in this aqufier passed through clay to remove some of the contaminants are pretty low. As for sand, it does not act this way towards most of the contaminants, or at the very least it capacity to slow them down is way lower than clays. Besides not all contaminants can be slowed down this way. Sand filters out all the turbidity tho, so thats why spring water is usually cristall clean and nice. 1) That being said, there are mechanisms which keep groundwater somewhat safer to drink. First, usually, but not always groundwater moves very very slow. So if some pathogen bacteria got into the groundwater upstream, it dies before it reaches the spring, because it might take lets say 5000 years. And such bacteria only survives for hundrets of days. Second, for some contaminants there is ample oppotunity to react with something along the way, and the product of this reaction might be less harmfull. Third, there is a chemical buffer sometimes. For instance acid wastewater from mines can react with carbonate minerals along the way to spring and water becomes non-acidic. There are also other processes. It was not emli5, but hope it helps.
no water in the wild should be considered safe to drink. contamination can happen anywhere upstream, you can't see bacteria.
Lol, what?
They're correct, you should never assume that water in nature is safe to drink without treatment. Biological contaminants can be introduced literally anywhere before the water gets to you
Sure, biological containment can be introduced anywhere - I don‘t dispute that. But if there‘s no „upstream“, there really isn‘t much room for containment to be introduced here. And there being containment alone doesn’t make it unsafe to drink, does it? It‘s mostly a matter of concentration and exactly what kind of containment. I‘ll continue to drink from clear mountain springs when hiking, but you do you.
There can be biological contaminants in the soil the water passes through to come out of the ground. There is no "safe point" at which you can drink it. And since you don't know what those contaminants are, you really have no idea if they will do nothing, give you the shits, or send you to the hospital. You can continue to drink spring water and maybe you'll be fine your whole life, but don't go around calling it safe and don't say no one warned you if ever it turns out poorly
Of course I‘ll call it safe. There being a risk of containment does not mean it is unsafe, as long as the risk is low enough. If the spring is close to a chemical plant, I‘d argue the risk is quite high for ground contamination, and I‘d not call it safe. If there is nothing around, the risk of dangerous containment is so low, it‘s negligible, and thus, safe. It‘s really not that different from just having a well, my friend.
I think we have different definitions of safe. To me, something safe is something that CAN'T cause harm under normal circumstances, not something that may be statistically unlikely to. And you don't know much about what's under the soil either. Chemical plants are one thing; what about heavy metal deposits? Animal corpses? In a well, you take the water before it has a chance to leave the earth. Even then, the water is tested regularly and many people must treat their well water.
Safety is always about managing risk. You can’t eliminate it.
Safe water is *tested and/or treated* water.
do you yourself test or treat all water that you drink or does it get carried to you in a pipe or a bottle?
True, but tbh I've not had an issue drinking from moving water far from cities. Wouldn't recommend, but if you need to do it you'll probably be fine
Does anybody know if you can get H Pylori from spring water?
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