Was just reading another thread and got to thinking. If you live closer to rivers and the bay than say the mountains,,,, what is a reasonable procedure for getting pure water.

The thread in question was about the Katadyn Pocket. That's great for say mountain stream water or maybe high up a river but what if you were near where the rivers empty to the Ches. bay or further up but still in salt or brackish water.

Also is there any kind of test to determine how salty the water is.

I see Katadyn has desalinaters but damn that's $1K. I thought the Pocket was expensive at $250.

Seems like there is no easy solution.