How Can I Take Filtered Water for Camping?

Most Americans are aware that water supplies are not nearly as dependable as we used to think. In fact, over 2100 contaminants have been identified in drinking water thus far. Of course, not all are in the water you drink, but how many did you want in it and still know it is safe?

Many reading this will have acted on these warnings and stopped drinking faucet or well water. For you only filtered water is worthy of your family or yourself. That means you are either purchasing bottled water, or that you have bought a water filter and are purifying it yourself.

You have the water problem solved at home, but what do you do when you go on vacation or take a camping trip? How can you guarantee you will get the same quality of water you are getting at home? If you are purchasing bottled water, then you can just take a case or two along with you. That is the most expensive option in the long run. In spite of water being abundant and free, drinking water is, in some forms, more expensive than gasoline. Also, you will probably discard the bottles and this just adds to the environmental landfill problem of non-biodegradable plastics.

For those who have purchased a gravity feed filter the solution is also obvious. You can pack your water filter in the car and filter all drinking and cooking water, no matter what the source. This would provide an endless supply and would guarantee that the stream or faucet water is safe for the family to drink.

If your device to filter water is not portable or you simply don't have room to take it, What is the next option? Plan ahead and filter extra water now to take with you on vacation. Store it away so that you have ample clean pure water from home.

But where should you store it? If you keep it in plastic containers, you could face a problem, especially if the water gets warm during storage. Plastic can leech into the water, contaminating it. This is true of the PET bottles (made of polyethylene terephthalate) used by most bottled water companies.  Reusing them is not safe either.

Some have opted for the more expensive hard plastic bottles used for sports drinks or water coolers.  The National Institutes of Health recently demonstrated that bisphenol, the chemical used in making these bottles, may cause neurological problems in preborn babies. We don't know the long range effects on adults. Perhaps it is too risky to store and transport water in those containers too.

Few choices remain. You want the purified water from home but can’t bring the filter. If you take filtered water from home and store it in unsafe containers, you defeat your purpose. The solution to this dilemma is to filter extra water at home and store it in glass containers. This would include bottles, jars, and glass lined thermoses.

This choice solves several problems. We will have the clean water we want without the problem of discarded bottles. Further we have the peace of mind that the bottle will not contaminate the water. The bottles can be washed and reused without danger to you or your family.