[pct-l] Bleach as water purification

[Peter Shaw]

As part of my weight reduction program, I jettisoned my water filter at Agua
Dulce and used bleach for the remainder of my thru last year. If the water
source looked clean and seemed reasonably reliable, I would add just two
drops per liter. If the water looked dubious I would add two more. At two
per liter I couldn't taste it, but at four drops it had the slightest tinge
of swimming pool water. I never found a definitive "how long to wait" for
bleach to do its thing. I would try to leave it for as long as possible, but
my standard answer to the question of how long to wait for it to work was
"it depends on how thirsty I was at the time". I had a small drop bottle
from REI and it lasted the whole trip. Total cost estimate was 10 cents for
four months. I double bagged it after it did leak once and I kept it in an
outside pack pocket. I was reasonably careful about using hand cleaner
before meals and I never had any gastro issues.

As always, it's a personal preference but I don't know of a cheaper, lighter
or more easily available solution. If you look up emergency water supplies
on the web, the recommendation is bleach so we keep some in our earthquake
kit.

Peanut Eater, PCT '09