The City of Dallas has officially begun a two-week operation to clear a large illegal dumpsite along the Trinity River, months after a local investigation brought the mess to public attention.
The cleanup crew targets a massive illegal dumpsite on the banks of the Trinity River, located on private land that was used for dumping after a Dallas man allegedly stole the property using a forged deed, according to Fox 4 News. The man, 59-year-old Kyle Boyd, was arrested by Dallas Police on April 21 and charged with three counts of illegal dumping related to the growing landfill on the riverbank.
The illegal trash dump first sparked public outrage in April, when Fox 4 News exposed video footage showing the scale of the mess: a tangled heap of lumber, sheet goods, metal, plastics, and bulky waste clogging the river channel. It wasn’t a single dumping incident – the debris had built up over multiple seasons.
City records would show that officials knew about the site well before taking action.
The City Marshal’s Office had reportedly installed surveillance cameras in the area around December of 2024, yet Boyd allegedly continued collecting payments from truckers willing to dump loads there. A judge voided the fraudulent deed on April 9, restoring the property to its rightful owner, and Boyd’s arrest followed weeks later. He has since been released on bond while awaiting trial, according to the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office.
After the story broke, city crews faced delays getting onto the illegal dumping site, citing safety concerns and prior threats against staff. By mid-April, there was no visible cleanup. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality would handle its own investigation, later referring the case to the Dallas Marshals.
Now, roughly two months later, heavy equipment has moved in. The city is cleaning up both the public riverbank and the private land where the illegal dumping allegedly took place. They’ve also reportedly installed a floating barrier to stop trash from drifting downstream toward the Gulf, with officials saying the weather and river conditions were right to start the cleanup work.
For Dallas residents, the Trinity River has become a recurring symbol of neglect.
The Dallas Express previously covered the Trinity River’s troubled history. Heavy rains once turned a homeless encampment along the Elm Fork tributaries into an environmental crisis, sweeping waste directly into the waterway as advocates warned the city that storm runoff from unsheltered camps was quietly poisoning the river season after season.
DX has also reported on dead bodies recovered from the river, a tragic reminder that the river’s problems run deeper than trash alone.
The Dallas Express reached out to the City of Dallas communications department and received confirmation that the cleanup is underway, but no further comment on the timeline was provided.
