[The Duke]

Why is distillation more important than simply boiling? Are there scenarios which imagine massive quantities of nonbiological contaminants? Or simply poisonous biological byproducts, like tomain (sp?)

The issue with distillation *and* boiling is FUEL. Eventually you can/will run out of fuel, or will be foraging far afield for it. Even it it is available, obtaining it will consume your valuable time. In terms of cost-effectiveness and overall effectiveness I can't recommend the Katadyne "pocket filter" highly enough - with a pore size of .2 microns, it's one of the most serious water filters on the planet.

Also, I can't recommend highly enough the use of calcium hypochlorite to sanitize water (after its been filtered).

Regarding distillation, I recommend using Mother Nature's own distillation process (aka. collecting rain water).

1) Collect rain water
2) Pre-filter the rain water through a cotton cloth
3) Filter that water through a TEOTWAWKI-quality water filter
4) Purify with bleach that has been made from calcium hychlorite.

Regarding sanitation:

1) Have a "sanitation plan" in place
2) Have a couple of bags of lime ready to use
3) Understand the rules for making and locating latrines
4) Be prepared to deal with diarrhea (knowing "Oral Rehydration Therapy" can save lives).
5) Strongly enforce basic sanitation habits among everyone in the group.

[dangus]

TEOTWAWKI?

[MrB]

One correction - calcium HYPOchlorite, ie, “pool shock”.

There’s also something called “dichlor” that is a lot stronger, to the tune of 1/4 teaspoon per 55 gallons.

Lots of places online that deal with this.

http://chppm-www.apgea.army.mil/documents/FACT/31-008-1004.pdf

(This one talks about the hypochlorite purification)
http://ldsprep.org/WATER.doc

(this one talks about dichlor usage)
http://www.survivalblog.com/2010/02/letter_re_cost-effective_emerg.html

[Ellendra]

2) Have a couple of bags of lime ready to use

If you run out of lime, ashes will work.