Featured photo by Angela Piazza/The Dallas Morning News.
April 24, 2026
On the Trinity River, which supplies nearly half of Texas’ drinking water, justice may be served over a massive, organized illegal dumping operation. Texas’ biggest illegal riverine dumping site in recent memory has finally gotten into the crosshairs of law enforcement following the arrest of a previously convicted felon in Dallas, whom complainants, including the Texas Rivers Protection Association, had been warning regulators about for months – others, for years.
The Dallas Morning News’ Robert Wilonsky and Lori Brown of FOX 4 News have reported that previously convicted felon Kyle Boyd was arrested this week, now charged with three state jail felonies of commercial-sized illegal dumping at what may now be considered a federal crime scene.
You can following their reporting here:
Robert Wilonsky: Drowning in illegal dumping along the Trinity River
Lori Brown: Suspects arrested in Trinity River illegal dumping scheme
This arrest comes nearly three months after a judge’s order from a Dallas County Probate Court (Case PR-24-02231-3) found that Boyd’s ownership of the property where the illegal dump is located, was void, born of a title fraud scam in which Boyd took advantage of an ill Vietnam Veteran, who died just seventeen days after Boyd allegedly stole the Veteran’s property. The Veteran’s estate was here, atop the Trinity River’s canyon-like limestone outcrop known as McCommas Bluff – a 100+ year old, historic Lock Keeper’s House, built for the lock keeper of the adjacent historic Lock and Dam No. 1. You can read more about the lawsuit, the mysterious fire that destroyed the house, and the heinous illegal river dumping and investigation in the links above.
Based on the recent images and information provided by the Dallas Morning News and FOX 4, TRPA estimates that millions, if not tens of millions of pounds of various waste and trash, some likely toxic, have made its way into the Trinity River at McCommas Bluff due to this organized criminal activity. Destructively and perhaps irreparably, the waste is likely piling up behind the historic Lock and Dam No. 1, lodging itself into the riverbed as spring rains bring higher flows and sediment into the main stem of the Trinity River.
This catastrophe will likely make its way to the shared status of other major Texas waterway contamination catastrophes, including the San Jacinto River Waste Pits, the Highlands Acid Pit, and River City Metal Finishing. TRPA is determined to see that those who perpetrated and enabled one of the biggest illegal riverine dumping sites in Texas history be prosecuted to the fullest extent that local, state, and federal laws allow.
