Topic

Filtering milky water


Forum Posting

A Membership is required to post in the forums. Login or become a member to post in the member forums!

Home Forums General Forums Food, Hydration, and Nutrition Filtering milky water

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 15 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #3423204
    Matthew / BPL
    Moderator

    @matthewkphx

    Any idea why a creek would be white? I’ve seen green water (algae) and brown (muddy) but not whitish. I was walking along a creek yesterday that looked like a 1:10 mixture of milk in water. Not white scummy foam.

    #3423206
    Bob Moulder
    BPL Member

    @bobmny10562

    Locale: Westchester County, NY

    Probably clay.

    #3423207
    Roger Caffin
    BPL Member

    @rcaffin

    Locale: Wollemi & Kosciusko NPs, Europe

    It could be white clay. If it was Nepal, it would be glacier dust – ground rock, very common.

    Or it could be a burst cow.

    Cheers

     

    #3423208
    Jeffs Eleven
    BPL Member

    @woodenwizard

    Locale: NePo

    Volcanoes around?  Oregon has ‘milky’ water and its volcanic silt or something.

    Burst cow took me a minute.

    #3423209
    Matthew / BPL
    Moderator

    @matthewkphx

    OMG ROGER

    Actually the trail had fine white sand on it in places. It refracted light in a sparkly manner so I’m guessing silica. I think I’ll pour my water through a bandana before clogging my filter…

    #3423218
    Mark V.
    BPL Member

    @room210

    Locale: Northern California

    I’ve seen milky water after a heavy thunder stom with a lot of hail. This was at about 7,000 feet where most of the time the water is very clear. I think it was a lot of silt running down stream, but I don’t know for sure.

    #3423229
    Matthew / BPL
    Moderator

    @matthewkphx

    The area had been hit with a heavy thunderstorm just a couple hours before. I’ll be on the same trail next weekend. I’m curious to see if it looks any different.

    #3423245
    Jerry Adams
    BPL Member

    @retiredjerry

    Locale: Oregon and Washington

    glacier silt water is pretty milky

    filtering with bandana won’t help – too fine

    put the water in a container and let the silt settle for a few hours, or over night.  Be careful not to accidentally stir up the water and undo your settling.

    or try to find a tributary or side channel that isn’t so silty

    #3423292
    Ralph Burgess
    BPL Member

    @ralphbge

    If it’s too fine to settle immediately, use alum (aluminum sulfate) from the supermarket (it’s a pickling and baking ingredient).    A very tiny pinch, shake thoroughly for it to dissolve and homogenize, and the fine particles will flocculate and settle out much more quickly, usually in under an hour.   Platypus 70oz bottles are good for this, because of their tall profile you can easily decant off the clear water without disturbing the silt on the bottom.

    #3423317
    David Thomas
    BPL Member

    @davidinkenai

    Locale: North Woods. Far North.

    +1 on the alum.  It’s how your sewer treatment plant makes things settle out of the water in tens of minutes instead of many, many hours.

    I’ve ordered 15 pounds of alum off of Amazon (for a “little” pond we built on our 13 acres).  If you want a sample sent to you in mail, PM me a snail-mail address.

    #3423318
    Matthew / BPL
    Moderator

    @matthewkphx

    David, thanks for the offer but that sounds like a really good way to get the Secret Service over to my house and then they might find the tiny Baggie of baby powder in my first aid kit right next to the ampule of Tincture of Benzoin.

    ive heard of people using alum in the chocolate milk water of the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. This wasn’t nearly as gritty. I’ll be there with a bunch of scout next weekend and it will be interesting to see how a Sawyer filter does with the water. I’m not too worried about it.

    #3423411
    Steve K
    BPL Member

    @skomae

    Locale: northeastern US

    What are you expected to do with the alum once it has done its duty? Surely not dump it out…?

    #3423416
    David Thomas
    BPL Member

    @davidinkenai

    Locale: North Woods. Far North.

    Just drink the water.  With a bit of residual alum in it (much will have settled to the bottom with the flocculated sediment.  It’s in the food aisle of the grocery store next to the cream of tartar, baking powder and baking soda and is called for in various foods like milk cake and especially in pickling recipes.  It will make the water slightly acidic, but very slightly in the amounts used to settle drinking water –  a pinch in a gallon.

    We’ve had whole threads on this, often around Colorado River water use, but you want a container that you can smoothly decant the clear water off the top without disturbing the sediments at the bottom.  At best, you’ll get 3/4 of the volume of water poured off before the bottom sediments start to get kicked up, so a larger-than-normal container is helpful.  On a rafting trip, the standard water container is the ubiquitous stacking 5-gallon bucket – $4 at Home Depot in orange and a bit less at Walmart (in blue or white).

    #3423588
    Ben H.
    BPL Member

    @bzhayes

    Locale: No. Alabama

    What are you expected to do with the alum once it has done its duty? Surely not dump it out…?

    If you have ever cleaned your dishes while backpacking, use the same procedures to dump out the sediment water.  Dumping in a cathole would probably be best.  A little pinch of Alum isn’t any less LNT than rinsing out your hot cocoa mug.

     

    #3423595
    Ralph Burgess
    BPL Member

    @ralphbge

    You use an almost unbelievably tiny amount of alum.   I’ve tried titrating down with water that’s essentially liquid orange mud, and you need no more than a few grains in a liter of water, maybe 1/8 teaspoon or something.   It dissolves completely, is harmless and tasteless.   It is important to shake very thoroughly to dissolve and homogenize.   That’s why I favor multiple 2L platypus bottles rather than an open bucket for settling.    The triple-charged Al+++ ions somehow deal with the repulsive electrostatic charge on the surface of the silt grains and allow them to flocculate.

    SInce you need so little anyway for these purposes, it’s probably better to use food grade (it’s a pickling & baking ingredient, you’ll find it in well-stocked supermarkets) than bulk.

    So you obviously drink most of it, ane there’s a trace amount dissolved in the sediment-laden dregs that you dump — but it’s totally harmless to both your body and the environment in such minute quantities.

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 15 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Forum Posting

A Membership is required to post in the forums. Login or become a member to post in the member forums!

Get the Newsletter

Get our free Handbook and Receive our weekly newsletter to see what's new at Backpacking Light!

Gear Research & Discovery Tools


Loading...