Brita filters remove chemical pollution, not biological. Theoretically, you might get the cysts and bacteria removed if you ran it through enough times but you would be losing water each time you used the filter. You would have a sanitized glass of air as your end product.

I do not know if a Brita pitcher filter is going to be the right solution, however one of the numerous options from Katadyn: http://www.katadyn.com would be a better solution depending on how much water you want to clean up. If it is only a pitcher at a time then for sure Katadyn will have a solution.

Read their instructions. I would not use it with lake water. There are companies that make water treatment systems, like Epiphany solutions, in New Castle, PA. They use solar collectors to purify any water.

Reverse-diffusion is the technology for turning dirty water into drinkable. It has been very successful in Japan and L.A.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_dif...

Quite obviously one can never logically expect the water from Lake Michigan would or even could be drinkable from just one go-through in a Brita water filtering pitcher [if ever at all], BUT is it possible if the water was ran through it enough times, COULD it ever be drinkable? If so, how many times could one expect to filter the water before it could be used for hydration? Serious *and* thoughtful answers only! DON'T BE A RUDE TROLL, thank you..

***IF YOU DO NOT ANSWER BOTH QUESTIONS I WILL NOT CONSIDER YOU FOR BEST ANSWER!!!***