Drinking and swimming
August 26, 2015 5:18 PM Subscribe
In the movies, you sometimes see people jumping into a pool on a hot day and drinking the water. Where is this possible in the world?
This is definitely the nuttiest thing I've asked here, but what the hell. There are always these movies where people are wandering through a desert/forest/badlands/whatever for like a million days, and they're thirsty and hot and dusty and tired, and then they arrive at a pool and jump in, and they're like, "Come on in! The water's fine!" And they swallow a mouthful of cool delicious water.
It looks appealing to me, but where is this actually possible and safe? Man-made pools would probably be treated with chlorine or some compound; the sea is salty; rivers and lakes often contain microbes and all manner of plant and animal life. So like a spring, maybe? I get that if you were dying of thirst, you wouldn't be freaking out over swallowing an amoeba, but in an industrialized disease-fearing world, there are cautions not to drink some sources of water. So I'm just wondering where this is practically possible and advisable.
Anyway, thanks for putting up with my idle curiosity. It must be hot today or something.
This is definitely the nuttiest thing I've asked here, but what the hell. There are always these movies where people are wandering through a desert/forest/badlands/whatever for like a million days, and they're thirsty and hot and dusty and tired, and then they arrive at a pool and jump in, and they're like, "Come on in! The water's fine!" And they swallow a mouthful of cool delicious water.
It looks appealing to me, but where is this actually possible and safe? Man-made pools would probably be treated with chlorine or some compound; the sea is salty; rivers and lakes often contain microbes and all manner of plant and animal life. So like a spring, maybe? I get that if you were dying of thirst, you wouldn't be freaking out over swallowing an amoeba, but in an industrialized disease-fearing world, there are cautions not to drink some sources of water. So I'm just wondering where this is practically possible and advisable.
Anyway, thanks for putting up with my idle curiosity. It must be hot today or something.
Most of the fresh water in america is ok. Something like 95 percent. The trick is knowing.
posted by RustyBrooks at 5:40 PM on August 26, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by RustyBrooks at 5:40 PM on August 26, 2015 [1 favorite]
The great lakes.
Opinions appear to differ on this, but I used to drink straight from Lake Michigan all the time as a kid and never got the slightest bit sick from it. On the Michigan side, in rural areas, I should say - I'd be less inclined to do this at a beach in Chicago or Green Bay. Probably Lake Superior is even better / cleaner.
posted by Joey Buttafoucault at 5:40 PM on August 26, 2015 [4 favorites]
Opinions appear to differ on this, but I used to drink straight from Lake Michigan all the time as a kid and never got the slightest bit sick from it. On the Michigan side, in rural areas, I should say - I'd be less inclined to do this at a beach in Chicago or Green Bay. Probably Lake Superior is even better / cleaner.
posted by Joey Buttafoucault at 5:40 PM on August 26, 2015 [4 favorites]
When canoeing in the Boundary waters/Superior NF, we did this routinely. We'd refill our canteens by dipping them in the water while paddling between portages.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 5:47 PM on August 26, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 5:47 PM on August 26, 2015 [5 favorites]
I think if you're in a cold-water mountain lake, away from agriculture, industry, boating, and significant tourism, most people figure they are fine as it's mostly snow melt.
posted by vunder at 5:47 PM on August 26, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by vunder at 5:47 PM on August 26, 2015 [2 favorites]
I think if you're in a cold-water mountain lake, away from agriculture, industry, boating, and significant tourism, most people figure they are fine as it's mostly snow melt.
The truth on this varies, as drinking water contaminated with animal waste can certainly lead to giardia, which is not fatal but not pleasant either. There are a number of ways to make an educated guess at how safe a water source is (is it flowing? how close to the source are you?, etc.)
The safest thing is to just go ahead and always treat your water, but you're usually not risking anything too serious if it is in the wilderness and appears clean.
posted by drjimmy11 at 5:56 PM on August 26, 2015 [1 favorite]
The truth on this varies, as drinking water contaminated with animal waste can certainly lead to giardia, which is not fatal but not pleasant either. There are a number of ways to make an educated guess at how safe a water source is (is it flowing? how close to the source are you?, etc.)
The safest thing is to just go ahead and always treat your water, but you're usually not risking anything too serious if it is in the wilderness and appears clean.
posted by drjimmy11 at 5:56 PM on August 26, 2015 [1 favorite]
Pool water is also safe-ish to drink but tastes sort of yucky.
posted by jessamyn at 5:59 PM on August 26, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by jessamyn at 5:59 PM on August 26, 2015 [3 favorites]
Highlands Natural Pool in Ringwood, NJ is a swimming pool carved out of stone and fed by natural springs. A very cool place to swim!
http://www.highlandsnaturalpool.org/
posted by Otter_Handler at 6:04 PM on August 26, 2015 [2 favorites]
http://www.highlandsnaturalpool.org/
posted by Otter_Handler at 6:04 PM on August 26, 2015 [2 favorites]
Best answer: I grew up around a lot of limestone/karst springs in the Ozarks. I'm also an epidemiologist/toxicologist.
Where these springs emerge, water quality tends to be pretty superior. Unless, of course, the spring opening is near or within an open cave system inhabited by bats, or some dumbass has a bad septic setup nearby, or... any of the usual reasons why surface waters can be contaminated.
That said, if I were dying of thirst I would have no qualms about getting to a fast-moving surface water source (not a stagnant or slow moving one) and drinking to my gut's fill. Our bodies deal with gastroenteritis and parasites a little better than with death from dehydration.
Anecdotally, I grew up drinking straight out of this cold-ass spring (some people call it "boiling spring," which is a misnomer since the water's a constant 58 degrees; just off Rush Creek near where it meets the Buffalo River). In the hottest months of the summer, I wouldn't even bother cupping the water in my hands, I'd just shove my face in it and drink up.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 6:11 PM on August 26, 2015 [13 favorites]
Where these springs emerge, water quality tends to be pretty superior. Unless, of course, the spring opening is near or within an open cave system inhabited by bats, or some dumbass has a bad septic setup nearby, or... any of the usual reasons why surface waters can be contaminated.
That said, if I were dying of thirst I would have no qualms about getting to a fast-moving surface water source (not a stagnant or slow moving one) and drinking to my gut's fill. Our bodies deal with gastroenteritis and parasites a little better than with death from dehydration.
Anecdotally, I grew up drinking straight out of this cold-ass spring (some people call it "boiling spring," which is a misnomer since the water's a constant 58 degrees; just off Rush Creek near where it meets the Buffalo River). In the hottest months of the summer, I wouldn't even bother cupping the water in my hands, I'd just shove my face in it and drink up.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 6:11 PM on August 26, 2015 [13 favorites]
Besides actual dangers, I always figured people don't do this because wherever you have swimming, you have people peeing in the water. Probably harmless, but still gross.
I certainly drank from Silfra Fissure in Iceland, but it's not exactly a refreshing swim -- it's nearly freezing glacial meltwater, and nearly everyone wears a drysuit to go in.
posted by ktkt at 7:11 PM on August 26, 2015
I certainly drank from Silfra Fissure in Iceland, but it's not exactly a refreshing swim -- it's nearly freezing glacial meltwater, and nearly everyone wears a drysuit to go in.
posted by ktkt at 7:11 PM on August 26, 2015
We have a family cottage in Quebec and the water that comes out of the sink comes directly from the lake without being treated.
Recent tests have shown that there *might* be some cooties and the official word is you should treat it but a lot of people don't. Up until a few years ago nobody worried about it but there have been a lot more cottages built since.
We would go canoeing and if we got thirsty we'd just scoop our hand in the lake and drink. I still brush my teeth with sink water and often just drink it. I have yet to come down with an abnormal case of the poops after my vacation.
posted by bondcliff at 7:34 PM on August 26, 2015
Recent tests have shown that there *might* be some cooties and the official word is you should treat it but a lot of people don't. Up until a few years ago nobody worried about it but there have been a lot more cottages built since.
We would go canoeing and if we got thirsty we'd just scoop our hand in the lake and drink. I still brush my teeth with sink water and often just drink it. I have yet to come down with an abnormal case of the poops after my vacation.
posted by bondcliff at 7:34 PM on August 26, 2015
New Hampshire has some of the cleanest lakes in the country - they're ranked 3rd in the nation (according to the NH Dept. of Environmental Services). Through the 80s and 90s my grandparents lived on Lake Sunapee, which is known for its exceptionally clear and clean water. The lake has had some rising phosphorous levels from 2000 onwards, which leads to algae bloom among other issues. This is a common side-effect of when cottages get knocked down to build bigger houses, and construction destroys natural erosion barriers. Suddenly chemical run-off, and the fertilizers of new ornamental lawns and gardens make their way into the lake. My grandparents took their water straight from the lake, just like most houses. This is still possible in many, many lakes around New Hampshire, and I know lots of houses still do on Lake Sunapee.
posted by missmary6 at 7:48 PM on August 26, 2015
posted by missmary6 at 7:48 PM on August 26, 2015
Best answer: When buying a house on a small, man made, stream fed lake in Connecticut, I had my well water tested and my lake water tested.
The lake water tested as drinkably clean.
My well needed to be remediated.
posted by slateyness at 7:56 PM on August 26, 2015 [8 favorites]
The lake water tested as drinkably clean.
My well needed to be remediated.
posted by slateyness at 7:56 PM on August 26, 2015 [8 favorites]
I'm not sure I understand the question, because it seems like you think lake swimming is very rare and dangerous? You don't have to look very hard to see that's not the case at all.
Lake Washington is an enormous lake next to Seattle and it is shockingly clean, despite being literally adjacent to a major city. And up until 1968, the city was dumping sewage into the lake.
Since then, it's completely recovered. The Cedar River, Seattle's water supply, feeds the lake. The lake is clean enough to be considered as a back-up water supply to the city. And there are many, many beaches for swimming.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 8:06 PM on August 26, 2015 [1 favorite]
Lake Washington is an enormous lake next to Seattle and it is shockingly clean, despite being literally adjacent to a major city. And up until 1968, the city was dumping sewage into the lake.
Since then, it's completely recovered. The Cedar River, Seattle's water supply, feeds the lake. The lake is clean enough to be considered as a back-up water supply to the city. And there are many, many beaches for swimming.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 8:06 PM on August 26, 2015 [1 favorite]
I remember hiking in the mountains near Hanover, New Hampshire as a kid and getting incredibly thirsty (apparently none of the adults thought it would be helpful to bring water) and drinking directly from a lake (again, none of the adults, including a doctor, seemed to think there was anything wrong with this), and I was totally fine. And that was the most satisfying water I've ever drunk, to date.
posted by three_red_balloons at 8:47 PM on August 26, 2015
posted by three_red_balloons at 8:47 PM on August 26, 2015
I think you may also be overestimating the rest of the public's awareness of water-borne illnesses. We may be a "disease-fearing" culture, but we all also have the image of the "pure unsullied mountain stream" in our collective heads as a trope; hell, they use that trope to sell Poland Spring water. What you're seeing may not so much be a case of "there are actual pools where the water is potable" so much as "we all secretly believe sort of that natural water sources are safe".
That said, some of the water in the Catakills is so pure that it's where New York City's tap water comes from.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:24 AM on August 27, 2015
That said, some of the water in the Catakills is so pure that it's where New York City's tap water comes from.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:24 AM on August 27, 2015
Like late afternoon dreaming hotel, I came in to recommend limestone springs, but the ones I'd point you to are in Central and Northeast Florida. Crystal clear 72 degree water pumping out of the limestone sure does taste delicious, and it hasn't killed me yet.
posted by saladin at 4:09 AM on August 27, 2015
posted by saladin at 4:09 AM on August 27, 2015
We did this all the time in the 90s in British Columbia, and never really thought about it.
posted by third word on a random page at 4:39 AM on August 27, 2015
posted by third word on a random page at 4:39 AM on August 27, 2015
Plants and river creatures are ok.
It's basically people, and some mammals that might contaminate the water.
Is this where we mention our favourite natural drinking water?
Waikoropupu Springs near Nelson, in New Zealand. Largest coldwater spring in the southern hemisphere, 14,000 litres per second, and nearly the clearest water in the world... water visibility is 63 metres.
It's clean, healthy water, so has a lot of freshwater plants etc. Like a freshwater coral reef.
The mouth of the spring is sacred/tapu so no swimming (seriously, a lot of religious/tapu restrictions in Maori culture are health & safety, restrictions on overfishing/hunting etc - so things that not-so-incidentally preserve water quality), but you can drink from down stream. I would happily drink from anywhere downstream from here.
A nearby lake holds the actual clear water record, at 70-80 metres visibility. It's basically naturally distilled.
If I was in that movie setting, while you can't guarantee that really, really clear water is clean water, it is really highly correlated. So, if I saw really clear, running water (especially blueish-clear), and knew that we were far away from people or farms that would be contaminating the water, and I was thirsty, I'd go ahead.
posted by Elysum at 5:09 AM on August 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
It's basically people, and some mammals that might contaminate the water.
Is this where we mention our favourite natural drinking water?
Waikoropupu Springs near Nelson, in New Zealand. Largest coldwater spring in the southern hemisphere, 14,000 litres per second, and nearly the clearest water in the world... water visibility is 63 metres.
It's clean, healthy water, so has a lot of freshwater plants etc. Like a freshwater coral reef.
The mouth of the spring is sacred/tapu so no swimming (seriously, a lot of religious/tapu restrictions in Maori culture are health & safety, restrictions on overfishing/hunting etc - so things that not-so-incidentally preserve water quality), but you can drink from down stream. I would happily drink from anywhere downstream from here.
A nearby lake holds the actual clear water record, at 70-80 metres visibility. It's basically naturally distilled.
If I was in that movie setting, while you can't guarantee that really, really clear water is clean water, it is really highly correlated. So, if I saw really clear, running water (especially blueish-clear), and knew that we were far away from people or farms that would be contaminating the water, and I was thirsty, I'd go ahead.
posted by Elysum at 5:09 AM on August 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Is this where we mention our favourite natural drinking water?
Sure. I'm interested in that as well as more objective insight into potability.
posted by thetortoise at 5:35 AM on August 27, 2015
Sure. I'm interested in that as well as more objective insight into potability.
posted by thetortoise at 5:35 AM on August 27, 2015
I have drunk Nile water that had been filtered through the sandy shores of the river. I was fine afterwards. And the Nile is not exactly well known for being clean. That was upstream from Egypt, though. I wouldn't want to do that downstream from Assouan.
posted by Too-Ticky at 5:38 AM on August 27, 2015
posted by Too-Ticky at 5:38 AM on August 27, 2015
Plants and river creatures are ok.
It's basically people, and some mammals that might contaminate the water.
Schistosomiasis is a parasitic tropical disease of humans second only to malaria in terms of public health and economic impact (and malaria is real bad). Schistosoma parasites' other host species are freshwater snails. Long term infections destroy your liver and can cause bladder cancer and infertility, and you don't even need to drink the water to pick up your Schistosoma parasite--they just burrow in through your skin. Swimmer's itch is caused by related North American parasites which, thankfully, can't infect humans--its hosts are snails and waterfowl, and our immune system handles them before they can make it through the skin.
posted by pullayup at 6:39 AM on August 27, 2015 [2 favorites]
It's basically people, and some mammals that might contaminate the water.
Schistosomiasis is a parasitic tropical disease of humans second only to malaria in terms of public health and economic impact (and malaria is real bad). Schistosoma parasites' other host species are freshwater snails. Long term infections destroy your liver and can cause bladder cancer and infertility, and you don't even need to drink the water to pick up your Schistosoma parasite--they just burrow in through your skin. Swimmer's itch is caused by related North American parasites which, thankfully, can't infect humans--its hosts are snails and waterfowl, and our immune system handles them before they can make it through the skin.
posted by pullayup at 6:39 AM on August 27, 2015 [2 favorites]
I'm a bit spoiled I guess, but we have a ton of fresh water lakes in Ontario and I wouldn't bat an eye at drinking any of the water unless it looks visibly bad. My husband's grandparents live at a cottage that gets all their water straight from their lake and they're perfectly healthy.
This also seems a bit flippant, but we had a well growing up that often had minor E.coli. when we did our yearly testing. (Most E. coli. is harmless, actually. http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/fs-sa/fs-fi/ecoli-eng.php) Eventually we got a UV killer, but not until I was 9 or 10. Still drank the water as a little kid with no problems.
Things don't have to be sterile to be safe. Humans are pretty well evolved to dealing with minor bacteria and who knows what else.
posted by aggyface at 7:40 AM on August 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
This also seems a bit flippant, but we had a well growing up that often had minor E.coli. when we did our yearly testing. (Most E. coli. is harmless, actually. http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/fs-sa/fs-fi/ecoli-eng.php) Eventually we got a UV killer, but not until I was 9 or 10. Still drank the water as a little kid with no problems.
Things don't have to be sterile to be safe. Humans are pretty well evolved to dealing with minor bacteria and who knows what else.
posted by aggyface at 7:40 AM on August 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
Sure. I'm interested in that as well as more objective insight into potability.
This is where I always point out that San Francisco gets its drinking water from Yosemite National Park. If you see someone walking about S.F. with a bottle of Dasani, be sure to ask them, "Um, how much better do need the water to be?"
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 8:51 AM on August 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
This is where I always point out that San Francisco gets its drinking water from Yosemite National Park. If you see someone walking about S.F. with a bottle of Dasani, be sure to ask them, "Um, how much better do need the water to be?"
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 8:51 AM on August 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
San Francisco gets its drinking water from Yosemite National Park.
Yeah, but it's still treated by SFPUC before distribution so not really "drinking from a lake" like the OP's question, even though it is in fact stored in a massive reservoir before shipping and treatment.
posted by Joey Buttafoucault at 3:54 PM on August 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
Yeah, but it's still treated by SFPUC before distribution so not really "drinking from a lake" like the OP's question, even though it is in fact stored in a massive reservoir before shipping and treatment.
posted by Joey Buttafoucault at 3:54 PM on August 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thanks, all. These answers were fun to read. I'm going to keep this list in case I happen to be in any of these places and I won't be mad at you if I drink the water and get sick, I promise.
posted by thetortoise at 3:40 AM on August 29, 2015
posted by thetortoise at 3:40 AM on August 29, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by vrakatar at 5:37 PM on August 26, 2015 [1 favorite]