A Santa Fe lawmaker added his voice Monday to those of activists concerned about the prospect of storm-water runoff sweeping traces of radioactive particulates into local drinking water in the aftermath of the Las Conchas Fire.

"It's totally not clear that there isn't going to be a bad result from storm-water coming through, picking that stuff up and taking it down the canyon," state Rep. Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, said Monday following a legislative hearing on the matter at the state Capitol. "We may be able to turn off the Buckman intake, which is good. That's our water. But that doesn't help all the farmers and aquatic life and everything else downstream."

The Buckman Direct Diversion pulls water out of the Rio Grande before the water is treated and sent to taps in the city and adjoining areas of Santa Fe County. Because the diversion is downstream from where Los Alamos Canyon and Pueblo Canyon drain into the river, some people have expressed concern that the Las Conchas Fire burned away flora and made soil less able to soak up rainwater, increasing the risk of flash floods that could whisk trace particulates into the Rio Grande.

But Pete Maggiore of the National Nuclear Security Administration told state lawmakers Monday that Los Alamos National Laboratory had taken several precautions to protect against such scenarios. He also reminded them that the lab was working under strict oversight by several state and federal agencies, including stringent requirements mandated in a permit issued by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

"With all the protections that we've got up there ... I think it's protected," Maggiore said of local drinking water.

Maggiore acknowledged that the intense heat of a wildfire sometimes does create "hydrophobic" soil, which can repel water and cause erosion in post-burn areas.

But he told state lawmakers that three Buckman storm-water early notification devices are working properly. Meanwhile, a camera on the San Ildefonso Pueblo to provide real-time data on the flow of water to the Buckman Water Treatment Plant should be installed this week.

In addition, the lab has removed drums full of potentially contaminated sediment in recent days, he said.

Lab spokesman Fred deSousa said in an email Monday that over the weekend of July 9 and 10, crews had "removed more than 80 containers of investigation waste (protective clothing, booties worn by people investigating the cleanup site, as well as some soils and debris) from canyon bottoms as well as 1,200 cubic yards of sediment from behind a structure called a 'weir' that is designed to help trap sediment before it moves down canyon."

Lab crews also "removed plastic tanks containing more than 5,000 gallons of water used in the drilling of and purging of monitoring wells," deSousa wrote. "We also installed 600 feet of concrete barriers to divert water away from power poles, well heads, and the county's buried gas lines."

Contact Trip Jennings at 986-3050 or at tjennings@sfnewmexican.com.