Is it just me, or does the whole 'water contaminated with e-coli' thing seem a bit of a non-issue?
As in, it should not stop someone from visiting/hiking Whitney, since they should be filtering their water anyway - and a combination of something like the Sawyer Mini and Steripen easily counters the e-coli threat.
Does this also mean that the kitchen at Whitney Portal was using untreated stream water? Because if they were on mains supply, this should not effect them.
Yes, this is a non-issue for the typical hiker who crashes at the Portal and leaves in the middle of the night or morning. Campers need to bring lots of water or filter. The store kitchen is on imported water now. It should be fixed with a new spring source later this season.
The bigger issue would be if the groundwater is getting contaminated from lack of compliance with wag bags. Based on the location of the spring, and nature of bacterial contamination, that seems unlikely, but not inconceivable.
