Thread by @gauravsabnis

"Saw your and Rupal's tweets about filling up water straight from streams. Planning to visit Catskills a lot during the summer. Is the water really 100% safe, especially for kids?"

A few others asked this so a short 🧵.

It is as safe as is possible. Kids, I don't have! 🤷🏽‍♂️🤷🏽‍♂️

https://twitter.com/gauravsabnis/status/1508120361677692928

It's not like I go slurping water from any and every stream I see. I do my homework online first. I've only drank out of natural streams in Himachal (Spiti valley), Iceland, Patagonia, & of course the Catskills. All are as safe as water can be.

No water can be "100%" safe.

Catskills specifically, is the NYC watershed. There is extensive management, testing, and tracking by the NYDEP. Detailed reports every year. The water isn't filtered before being sent to our city taps. Just UV treated but even that is more caution than necessity.

From my homework/research, no one has ever reported getting sick drinking water from these streams in decades, if ever.

DEP website talks about Giardia, which is the only real risk given the Catskills ecology. But even that is minimal to non existent if you use common sense.

My simple rule is, I'll only drink fast flowing water that is clear enough for me to see the rocks at the bottom. And Catskills water flows really fast. And is really clear.

I've been drinking it for years. Never once the slightest problem. And even online forums say the same.

So yeah, do your homework online. From NY govt websites as well as forums. Make sure you're drinking water from a stream that is clear, flowing fast, and oh yes, that you have a view of for at least a 100 meters upstream. So you can make sure no animals are there going potty.

Safe for kids and all, please don't ask me. I'm not a parent. Each parent has their own thresholds. I know people who will only give their kids bottled water everywhere. I know parents who will let their kids drink from streams. So that's really up to the parent.

All I can tell you is that in the decade or so that I've been drinking water from Catskills streams, I've never gotten even mildly nauseous. Nor has anyone I know. In fact it is very tasty and most satisfying to drink.

Hope this answers the question.

Now I do have a very sturdy stomach. Our @k_rupal doesn't & has extensive experience of food poisoning in India 🫣. But she's never had problems drinking stream water in Catskills, Iceland, Patagonia.

https://twitter.com/gauravsabnis/status/1508121165079982083?t=oOshsq12U87PHUlDlr0QRg&s=19

Hehe, unknown to me, @k_rupal was taking paparazzi pics of me posting this thread sitting by the very Catskill stream that we drink out of. 🤗 #CatskillsParadise

Life is good 😍🤗

https://twitter.com/k_rupal/status/1512939863779258369?t=ZEMZ3BmOEnEzhrHpoTi1sg&s=19

Heading back to the city, filling up "wild water" while also giving a demo of my rules. Clear, fast flowing, and a view upstream to make sure no animal is pooping in it.

You don't need to go that deep. Just testing new boots. Usually I fill from the edge.
#CatskillsParadise

Four liters of water in 30 seconds. So tasty!

That I can do this so easily shows why Catskills water is extra crazy clean. This is all glacier cut land. Not much left to erode. So most streams in the Catskills mountains are just rainwater flowing down a solid rock base most of the time. No soil or moss or anything.

"Is the water cold? It looks cold!"

messaged a friend. Yeah, like refrigerated cold. There was a snow flurry a while ago. It's still not summer in the mountains, remember? Spring has barely started!

But it will be nice and warm in summer. Swimmable. And omg, sitting in it and chilling with drinks and having a fire on the rocks and grill stuff on it. It is shallow enough and smooth enough to just sit like in a swim up bar bench. 😍😍
@curiousgawker

Fun fact. The movie Ice Age is roughly supposed to have taken place in this area, especially if you look at some zoomouts of Scrat. Those glaciers cut the Hudson Valley and the Catskills.