sand mine leaks Archives - Reduce Flooding

9/17/25 – Update – In response to a request from ReduceFlooding.com, TCEQ has now supplied its FULL report, WITH attachments. Accordingly, I have modified the copy below to delete references to the missing attachments. I have also hyperlinked the full report where the partial report was previously. Caution though: it’s almost 20 megs. I also added some comments about the previously missing water reports.

9/13/25 – During late February, 2025, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) investigated the Hallett Sand Mine on the West Fork San Jacinto and cited it for five violations. The violations included failure to:

Prevent the unauthorized discharge of process water
Maintain structural controls
Submit a required “notice of change” (NOC) to the TCEQ when a designated contact person left the mining company
Inspect structural controls every seven calendar days
Submit a “non-compliance notification” when it learned of the unauthorized discharge.

However, the TCEQ report mentions no fines or financial penalties. The Commission simply closed the case after the violations were resolved, even though the mine’s neighbors observed the unauthorized discharge for a full year.

In my opinion, this appeared to be the equivalent of being stopped for repeated, excessive speeding in a school zone and let off with a verbal warning.

Who’s in Charge?

According to the TCEQ report, RGI Materials Inc. operates the Hallett mine, though Hallett’s website claims Hallett is hiring for positions at the mine. Confused?

It turns out that “Hallett” is an “assumed name” of RGI. RGI was incorporated by Kurt, Jim and Jeff Rasmussen of Des Moines, Iowa, in 2001. One month later, RGI filed an Assumed Name Certificate for Hallett Materials.

RGI Materials, Inc. is the company’s legal name. But Hallett Materials is the trade name (also known as “doing business as,” DBA, or brand name) by which the public knows RGI in Texas.

The Rasmussen Group in Des Moines lists 10 other companies it operates with different publicly facing brand names. But there are likely even more companies owned by the Rasmussen family.

For instance, the Montgomery County Appraisal District shows the mine property is owned by J.R. Development, Inc. Secretary of State records show that J.R. Development also leads back to Des Moines with the local address at the Hallett mine in Porter.

So, all roads lead to the Rasmussen family. The TCEQ report even lists Karl Rasmussen 17 times!

TCEQ Does Not Make Full Report Public

The TCEQ report alleges the existence of eleven attachments, none of which were attached – even though one of the investigators told a resident adjacent to the mine that this was the largest investigation he’d ever been a part of.

The attachments allegedly included maps, correspondence, a missing report, photographs and, most importantly, water sample results.

The mine is monitored for Nitrate + Nitrite N, total suspended solids, pH, and hazardous metals including Arsenic, Barium, Cadmium, Chromium, Copper, Lead, Manganese, Mercury, Nickel, Selenium, Silver, and Zinc.
TCEQ Report

However, water samples tested only for suspended and dissolved solids. Compared to control samples taken outside the mine in a nearby drainage ditch, they showed high concentrations of both. One table in the water sample report indicated that sample sizes were not sufficiently large to render valid results.

Investigators Have Trouble Accessing Site

Citizens complained about process wastewater spilling from the mine onto adjacent property and then into the West Fork San Jacinto River for more than a year. The West Fork feeds Lake Houston, the source of drinking water for more than 2 million people.

*Hallett Mine leakage photographed on February 23, 2025*. *Route to river highlighted in red.*

After meeting with the mine’s operators, the investigators tried to walk to the leak, but could not reach it because the path was inundated with process wastewater.

They then tried an alternate route. But they could not reach the leak from that direction either because the berms had not been maintained.

The investigators then tried a third approach. They left the mine and doubled back to the breach from outside of the mine. At the time of the investigation, the process wastewater discharge covered more than 5 acres.

Other Troubling Discoveries

In addition to the unauthorized discharge, when the investigators asked to speak to the person responsible for discharges from the mine, they were informed that the person whose name was on the discharge permit was no longer employed there.

Moreover, the mine could not produce its “2024 annual comprehensive site compliance evaluation report.”

Neither did the mine notify the TCEQ of the discharge which had the potential to endanger human health, safety and the environment.

The mine did not maintain its structural controls.

Nor could it produce required weekly inspection reports of those controls.

Eventual Compliance Resolves Complaints to TCEQ Satisfaction

One day after the initial site visit, an investigator noted that the unauthorized discharge had stopped and that the berm breach had been repaired. See below.

*Hallet leak plugged*. Photo by neighbor.

On 4/3/25, RGI submitted documentation that it was inspecting its structural controls every seven days.

The written notice of non-compliance (required within five days of becoming aware of the non-compliance) was submitted more than a year after the unauthorized discharge started.

On March 13, 2025, RGI updated its contact information for the TCEQ.

TCEQ dropped the complaint regarding the annual compliance report after Mr. Rasmussen indicated that the evaluation was conducted in November 2024.

The TCEQ website now shows all violations resolved and the case closed as of 9/9/2025.

Outrage from Neighbor

One neighbor told me, “Unbelievable what they allow them to get away with. That’s why they just keep doing what they do.”

Posted by Bob Rehak on 9/13/25

2937 Days since Hurricane Harvey

The thoughts expressed in this post represent opinions on matters of public concern and safety. They are protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution and the Anti-SLAPP Statute of the Great State of Texas.

Just upstream from the blocked drainage ditch at Northpark Drive and the San Jacinto West Fork, Hallett Materials operates the biggest sand mine between I-69 and I-45. The mine complex sprawls across several square miles and has several leaks. During the last flood in January, those leaks likely contributed to sedimentation in the West Fork and a blocked drainage ditch immediately downriver from the mine.

Blocked Northpark Ditch at West Fork — *Contrary to a popular narrative among miners, this sand did not come from Spring Creek. That’s another watershed.* *Picture taken on 2/5/2024.* *The Hallett Mine is to the left (upstream) of the channel.*

*This picture of the blockage above shows the height of the sand relative to the top of the banks. Courtesy of a resident who prefers to remain anonymous.*

Location of Mine Relative to Blockage

In late January, the West Fork experienced an estimated five-year flood after several days of nearly constant rains. Waking up after the flood was like a bad hangover. The blocked ditch above was just one of the problems. It is immediately downstream from the giant Hallett mine. See below.

*Landsat image from Google Earth. Arrow shows direction of river’s flow. Circle shows location of blockage.* *Numbers show approximate location of leaks listed below.*

Mine Leaks in Multiple Places

Let’s take a closer look at each of those three areas.

One pond was wide open to the river through a large gap in its dike. The gap appears to have remained open since at least July 2023 and enlarged.
A pipe was expelling water from a second pond straight into the river.
A bulldozer appeared to have helped a third pond overflow across a road. Wastewater from the settling pond then flowed through woods and neighboring properties on its way to the river.

Pictures Taken on Feb. 8, 2024

Leak #1

Notice the huge gap in the dike of the pond in the center of the image below. Also notice that pond’s elevation compared to the one on the right.

*The dike breach (center of image) first showed up in Google Earth in July 2023.* *It now appears considerably larger, indicating severe erosion from the recent flood.*

The drought last summer and fall certainly didn’t cause the breach to enlarge.

Historical images in Google Earth show that this pond frequently breaches its dikes in different places. Something’s going through there!

Leak #2

A little farther downstream on the west side of the river, a pipe drains another Hallet pond directly into the river.

*I photographed Hallett piping water into the river at this same location in 2020.*

Leak #3:

Haven’t seen this before! On the east side of the river, in the woods next to Hallett’s main settling pond, a bulldozer apparently created a path for water to escape across a maintenance road. Water then flowed through woods 600-feet wide and onto neighboring properties before entering the river just above the blocked channel. See the series of images below.

*Notice bulldozer tracks to left of perimeter road and wet area on road in the middle of the frame.*

Flying closer, you can see that the bulldozer had pushed dirt from the road into the pond (see below, right side of frame).

*Silty wastewater then escaped from the pond* *into the woods on the left.*

*The silty wastewater then migrated south (top of frame) through the woods.*

*Along the way, it invaded neighboring properties.*

*Then it drained back across the access road and into an abandoned mine (top of frame).*

Hanover Estates now owns that abandoned mine. In the photo above, note the open path to the river in the upper right. It’s shown below in more detail.

*Closer shot of wastewater exiting Hanover pond through another breach that leads straight to blockage (circled in red in the distance).*

Apportioning the Relative Contribution of Different Sources

The Hallett mine owner told me that sand can’t escape his pits. I remain skeptical.

To be fair, some of the sediment in the channel blockage likely came from river-bank erosion and sand bars upstream.

Also, a new development called Northpark South, now in the clearing stage, likely also contributed to the blockage. Silty stormwater flows unchecked from it into a second abandoned mine (also owned by Hanover Estates) and then into the blocked drainage ditch.

Northpark South, which drains into Northpark ditch is being built over wetlands. — *Northpark South photo from January 24, 2024, looking south toward abandoned mine, blocked ditch and river in distance.*

No one can say that Hallett and Northpark South contributed all of the material in the blockage. But it would be hard to pretend that none of it came from them.

The mine is still leaking two weeks after the flood!

And even before the flood, a giant ravine was sending stormwater from Northpark South into the second abandoned mine on the south side of the ditch.

ravine at Northpark South — *Northpark South on December 28, 2023 before flood. Note ravine caused by erosion.*

That mine drains into the blocked channel directly above the blockage. (See very first shot in this post.)

The SJRA, which is investigating sedimentation in the river basin, relies on a sediment gauge at I-45 – upstream from the mines and most of the new developments along the river. So they can’t really help sort out this issue.

The Calm After the Storm

Now that the immediate danger has passed, we need to investigate the contribution of mining and floodplain development to sedimentation.

When rivers and ditches fill up with sludge, it reduces conveyance.

Then, when the next flood comes, instead of water staying within the riverbanks, it may back up or overflow into living rooms.

The greatest area of deposition will normally be where floodwater slows down as it reaches a standing body of water like Lake Houston. We’ve seen what that led to.

Corporate waste-disposal practices are matters of public safety and concern. We need to examine them more closely.

If Hallett and/or the Northpark South developer wish to respond to this editorial, I will be happy to post their points of view.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 2/9/24

2355 Days since Hurricane Harvey

Tag Archive for: sand mine leaks

TCEQ Cites Hallett Mine for Five Violations But Issues No Fines