Date:         Wed, 2 Sep 1998 12:35:17 -0700
Reply-To:     davidson <davidson@SIERRA.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         davidson <davidson@SIERRA.NET>
Subject:      Cleaning Water Tank
Comments: To: Vanagon List Address <Vanagon@VANAGON.COM>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Some thing to think about for those of us who get water in camp grounds and
other remote sources:

These remote sources of water can have giardia and other nasties. Even if
they claim that the water is treated or filtered, etc. All water treatment
systems can fail. Especially when they are maintained by a government
employee.
With this in mind I suggest that cleaning of the water tank be done with
either chlorine or iodine. I believe both in the proper concentrations over
the proper time period at the proper water temperature will kill giardia.
Because backpack stores are probably more expert at killing giardia than RV
stores, I buy my iodine tablets there. Follow the directions on the
package!!
I first dissolve them in a smaller container of water (enough tablets for
the 10 gallon tank that VW claims is 13 gallons) before pouring into the
tank and filling. I use the pump to get mixture into pipes. Then drive
around to slosh onto inside top tank walls. After the proper time period
you can then either drain the tank and refill with new city tap water. Or
if you are on a trip, got the water from a suspect source, and have not
city water access you can simply drop a few of the NEUTRALIZER TABLETS
(something new in the past few years) that come packaged with the iodine
tablets into the water, wait a few minutes and drink the treated water
(this is what some of us backpackers do with every quart of water that we
get out of a lake or a stream). The neutralizer tablets deactivate the
iodine, clear up the water, and take the iodine taste away (actually tastes
good).
Bill