In article ,
Janet wrote:
In article ,
says...

And I am thinking of buying a ceramic 0.5 micron ceramic water filter which
will give me about a gallon of clean water to hand - which is more than
enough for my needs. Although the air in my part of the country is very
clean, my gutters still accumulate some dirty sediment, which is not
something I'd like to be ingesting - even in small amounts.

A filter will remove sediment.But it's probably not fine enough to
remove any bacteria growing in the sediment.

A 0.5 micron filter will remove almost all bacteria, and filters are
increasingly used for purifying small quantities of water, when
walking and in other areas where it isn't readily available. They
will NOT remove viruses (hence the original term 'filterable viruses')
and so will not protect against polio, hepatitis A, etc.

As far as I know, they should be fine against most things that are
likely in waterbutts, but I am no expert.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On 08/03/2012 10:41, AL_n wrote:
"Charlie wrote in news:9rp2o3Fgu4U1
@mid.individual.net:

the OP wanted to know how to make
it safe to drink rain water from a butt, which in my view is either by
boiling or a UV filter but I think they may have lost interest with the
thread as it got sidetracked!

Still somewhat interested in the thread. Having read the helpful comments,
I think I have a much better grasp of the (fairly low) risks involved in
drinking rainwater-butt water. If the water becomes too cruddy-looking with
too many low-life squatters swimming around, I'll probably boil it. Then I
won't have nightmares about Alien IV bursting out of my gut at some
inconvenient moment. :-)

The sorts of nasties that can annoy you through drinking unboiled water
butt water are invisible to the naked eye. Camping shops sell tablets
that will render iffy water potable but it doesn't taste so good.

Keeping light out will at least minimise the amount of stuff entering
the food chain. Green water is very unappealing to drink.

I suppose it depends what circumstances you find yourself in, but I
would not want to drink the water from my water butt without giving it a
very good rolling boil first. Loads of dead leaves, sludge and probably
the odd mouse or bird decomposing in the bottom of it by now. The water
itself is pretty clear apart from right at the bottom.

I don't think you can keep it clean enough as collected rainwater to be
potable, but you could sterilise it afterwards before drinking it.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

"Bill Grey" wrote in message
...

wrote in message
...
In article ,
Martin wrote:

You will not get hepatitis by drinking water from a butt that has
collected rainwater from a roof.

I referred to the vast majority of "the worlds population". People do
get hepatitis from drinking spring water sometimes and water that has
been collected in tanks. It was common in tap water on the Greek
Islands at one time

You are Edwin Poots and I claim my bent farthing!

Hepatitis A comes from the faeces of infected humans - NOWHERE else.
It is not transmitted by birds. Think about it.

Did you think about it? Faeces of infected humans can get into tap
water.

Sigh. This thread is about drinking rainwater collected off a roof
in the UK into a waterbutt. Your wittering is no more relevant than
warning of the risk of giardia would be.

Anyway, I am not going to respond to any more of this Pootery.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Martin 1 : Nick 0

Sigh!


I did note that for the UK, avian contamination was the main biological
risk.
Which is not included in the previous reference.
Unless, of course, you roof is a perch for flying pigs.
[Excepting, of course, late on Christmas Eve if you have been a very good
child.]

So I'm with Nick on this one.

--
No plan survives contact with the enemy.
[Not even bunny]

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")

"Martin" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 10 Mar 2012 11:03:30 -0000, "David WE Roberts"
wrote:


"Bill Grey" wrote in message
.. .

wrote in message
...
In article ,
Martin wrote:

You will not get hepatitis by drinking water from a butt that has
collected rainwater from a roof.

I referred to the vast majority of "the worlds population". People do
get hepatitis from drinking spring water sometimes and water that has
been collected in tanks. It was common in tap water on the Greek
Islands at one time

You are Edwin Poots and I claim my bent farthing!

Hepatitis A comes from the faeces of infected humans - NOWHERE else.
It is not transmitted by birds. Think about it.

Did you think about it? Faeces of infected humans can get into tap
water.

Sigh. This thread is about drinking rainwater collected off a roof
in the UK into a waterbutt. Your wittering is no more relevant than
warning of the risk of giardia would be.

Anyway, I am not going to respond to any more of this Pootery.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Martin 1 : Nick 0

Sigh!


I did note that for the UK, avian contamination was the main biological
risk.
Which is not included in the previous reference.
Unless, of course, you roof is a perch for flying pigs.
[Excepting, of course, late on Christmas Eve if you have been a very good
child.]

So I'm with Nick on this one.

I responded to the person who thought it was OK to drink untreated
water because most of the world drank dirty water.

I noticed that Nick gave a similar response to mine this week.
--

Martin

I was amused at the way he chickened out when you argued with him about
hepatitis :-)

Good fun eh?

Bill

"David WE Roberts" wrote in message
"Bill Grey" wrote in message
wrote in message
...
In article ,
Martin wrote:

You will not get hepatitis by drinking water from a butt that has
collected rainwater from a roof.

I referred to the vast majority of "the worlds population". People do
get hepatitis from drinking spring water sometimes and water that has
been collected in tanks. It was common in tap water on the Greek
Islands at one time

You are Edwin Poots and I claim my bent farthing!

Hepatitis A comes from the faeces of infected humans - NOWHERE else.
It is not transmitted by birds. Think about it.

Did you think about it? Faeces of infected humans can get into tap
water.

Sigh. This thread is about drinking rainwater collected off a roof
in the UK into a waterbutt. Your wittering is no more relevant than
warning of the risk of giardia would be.

Anyway, I am not going to respond to any more of this Pootery.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Martin 1 : Nick 0

Sigh!


I did note that for the UK, avian contamination was the main biological
risk.

What do you mean by the term 'avian caontamination'? Bird poop? Avian
influenza?

I'm curious since I've spent my life drinking collected rainwater.

Which is not included in the previous reference.
Unless, of course, you roof is a perch for flying pigs.
[Excepting, of course, late on Christmas Eve if you have been a very good
child.]

So I'm with Nick on this one.

Just for info, you might be interested in:
http://www.health.vic.gov.au/environ...ter_supply.pdf