Archuleta County Public Works Director Mike Torres recently spoke to the Board of County Commissioners during two work sessions, on Sept. 16 and again on Sept. 22, with updates on the status of County Road 500 near Arboles and flooding caused by rain storms in the area over the past week.
During its regular meeting on Sept. 16, the BoCC approved the start of phase one of the slope failure repair project on County Road 500.
According to that meeting’s agenda, “This project will be funded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture and not to exceed the amount of $533,475.00. The USDA-NCRS will reimburse 75% ($400,106.00), the state will reimburse 12.5% ($66,684.50) and the County will cover the remaining 12.5% ($66,684.50) of this project.”
An attached document also explains that the purpose of the project is to “stabilize portions of the San Juan River adjacent to County Road 500 where riverbank erosion and channel instability threaten the roadway and associated public infrastructure.”
During the Sept. 16 BoCC work session, Torres explained that this project falls within the National Resources Conservation Service Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) program that the county received funding for earlier this year.
“The engineering portion of this is 100 percent funded through the EWP program,” he said, explaining that the county’s match on the project is roughly $66,000.
“With this flooding going on, I’m really getting nervous,” Torres said. “Hopefully the rains continue and then stop so I can get this done.”
County Manager Longinos Gonzalez indicated that Road and Bridge crews worked overnight last Monday, Sept. 15, clearing parts of County Road 500 “‘cause of the rains.”
He also indicated that two rescues occurred with people who were stuck in the area and could not get out due to flooding.
He added that crews were in the area working and “are aware of local resident concerns” while also prioritizing roads that were becoming impassable and continuing with other flood mitigation work as the storm progressed.
Torres spoke to the BoCC again on Tuesday, Sept. 22, indicating that crews were still working on flood mitigation efforts.
“I honestly think that County Road 500 is worse than the 2025 flooding,” Torres said.
According to reports entered into the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network, more than 3 inches of rain fell in the Arboles area from Sept. 13 through Sept. 22.
Torres also noted that crews spent more than four months between the end of 2025 and in 2026 working on ditches and culverts in the area and now “can’t even tell, at all” that some of that work was done.
“For how much effort we put into [County Road 500], we gotta look long-term,” he said.
He explained that the county has also been working on a right of way agreement with the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, which he indicated would help get more effective work done on the road.
“I feel like we should probably get in there and maybe put some larger culverts, address it for the amount of water that’s actually flowing down to the road,” Torres said.
“It’s really bad in Arboles,” Commissioner Veronica Medina commented, explaining she was surprised by the amount of flooding that’s occurred due to recent storms.
Torres described the situation as “difficult, because I feel like when Arboles was established, I don’t know how much engineering was really put into some of those roads.”
Commissioner Warren Brown commented that a disaster declaration wasn’t issued for the recent flooding in the area, but suggested that the county could enter into an OMNIA agreement with surrounding counties “because it’s been proven that the federal government’s not coming here to help us.”
Brown stated that the only people coming to help “are us and our neighbors,” explaining the OMNIA agreement would allow the county to reach out to neighboring counties and ask for assistance to “fix” an emergency situation, and vice versa.
Torres commented that in his conversations with neighboring counties, “We all mutually are there for each other,” but that more often than not everyone is dealing with the same issues at the same time.
“I know a few roads in La Plata county that were affected pretty heavily,” Torres said.
In an email to the SUN, Torres urged people to travel with caution on County Road 500.
“There have been multiple washouts along CR500 and the roads are very slick in areas,” Torres writes.
clayton@pagosasun.com
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