Why to not drink spring water

dipbait

dipbait

Joined
Feb 9, 2008
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Yesterday I was tracing a spring to its source. It looked innocent enough, I wondered if it was safe to drink. I noticed some rocks stacked up about fifty yards directly uphill from the source. I investigated.
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Another pic with a couple of knives for scale.

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I could not see inside so I took a pic with flash and examined it this morning.

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This was found on the outskirts of town. Im speculating that it is an early waste / storm sewage system. This spring could be contaminated with a double whammy, human waste and dead animal.
 
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Interesting find! Thanks for pointing that out! I think that many folks probably would have just gone ahead and had a drink without scanning the surrounding area.
 
Whether I drink from a spring depends on what I'm doing. If I'm on a day hike I might. If it's a multi day one I'd rather not risk being dog sick and having to hike 10 miles to my car.;)
 
I need to go to Missouri. There's all kinds of neat stuff in the woods.

Down here in FL, a spring creates a large creek or river, and when you find the source, you're looking at a pond or lake.
 
It's the same water that would come from a well. I drink out of springs all the time in the summer. We water all the steers from springs which we pipe to a trough.
 

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el dub said:
It's the same water that would come from a well. I drink out of springs all the time in the summer. We water all the steers from springs which we pipe to a trough.
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Yeah, I should change the title.

Theres a lot of small springs here, I never drink out of them. Some may be safe.
 
wulfshrunting said:
I need to go to Missouri. There's all kinds of neat stuff in the woods.

Down here in FL, a spring creates a large creek or river, and when you find the source, you're looking at a pond or lake.
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In Southern Missouri the springs are like that, huge. In northern they are pretty small.
 
I've got a friend who is in the hospital right now because of a parasite that the Dr. said he probably got from spring water. It looks like he'll be released tomorrow but it took the hospital several days to figure out what the problem was. Now we need to figure out if it was the spring at his house.
 
Ground water is generally much safer than surface water. Some ground water, however, can be influenced by surface water. Drinking untreated water from any source is a crap shoot. I drank untreated spring water every day as a kid and never got sick from it...that I know of. Sure, I have an extra arm growing out of my back, but it's handy so I don't complain.
 
I think I may have asked you this once before in a previous thread, but what part of the state are you from?
 
JCavSD said:
Drinking untreated water from any source is a crap shoot.
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Heh. You made a funny.


When was a kid, I used to drink untreated water, too. I can't recall ever getting sick. But I chalk that up to luck. I know better these days, and knowing the risks, I'd have to be desperate to revert to the old practices.
 
I've lived down around Columbia all of my life, but both of my parents were from Hannibal, and my two half-brothers still live there. They're quite a bit older than me though.. What a small world :)
 
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Anyone read Two Little Savages? Great book by Ernest Thompson Seton (one of the founders of Boy Scouts). In it, it describes being able to dig a hole some distance from a pond (can't remember how far. Think 20 or so feet), and let the water fill the hole. Remove the water that first fills hole, and let the hole refill. Should be clear, pretty well (sorry for pun) filtered by the earth the water passes through. I wonder if anyone has tried this, or if its safe. I guess everything is relative. Probably safer than standing or other surface water. Not as safe as filtered. William
 
el dub said:
It's the same water that would come from a well.
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Not necessarily. Springs are often fed from near by, up slope surface water that could already be contaminated. Potable water wells are usually sunk into much deeper groundwater that has been percolating through the ground for years or more, but even deep well water can be contaminated with various chemicals and bacteria in certain locations. Drinking untreated water from any source is taking a chance.
 
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