More than 340,000 cubic yards of dirt have been excavated at the future enclosed Nissan Stadium site, and some Bordeaux residents are raising alarms about its eventual destination. 

In June, Titans representatives told the Banner the dirt would fill sites in Hendersonville and Goodlettsville. However, a plan has since emerged to use some of the material to bolster the environmental mitigation cap at the long-closed Bordeaux landfill and possibly prepare the site for a solar array. 

“There is a potential plan to take some clean fill to the closed Bordeaux landfill as a cost-effective, clean option for protecting the integrity of the cap,” Alex Apple, spokesperson for Mayor Freddie O’Connell, said. “In no way is this a reopening of the landfill, which we would oppose and which current ordinances prohibit. The route the fill would take would avoid residential areas and keep streets clean. Discussions related to that plan are ongoing, and local residents can have confidence in Metro’s commitment to the protection and maintenance of the closed landfill.”

But Metro Councilmember Joy Kimbrough, who represents the sprawling District 1 in North Davidson County, told the Banner this week she is “livid” about the proposal and said communication with the administration about the plan has been confusing. 

“We just do not want the dirt, period,” Kimbrough said, noting the disruption a parade of dump trucks would cause her constituents. “Take it somewhere other than here.”

She suggested that each of the city’s 35 Metro Council districts should take an equal portion of the material and that she is concerned about “what’s in the dirt,” despite promises that it has been tested. (The Titans deferred comment to Metro.) Since being elected last year, Kimbrough has sought to curtail construction debris dumping in her district. 

“I don’t want them to start looking at District 1 as the city’s trash can,” she added. 

An excavator works on a large dirt mound a the Nissan Stadium construction site. Credit: Martin R. Cherry / Nashville Banner

O’Connell was asked about the plan during a call-in show Thursday on WPLN. 

He said there has been “a lot of miscommunication and misinformation” about the proposal. (Kimbrough used the same words to describe the situation at a community meeting later Thursday.)

“At some point we will be needing to do some compliance activity out there,” O’Connell said, adding that the Titans have “dirt we need and could use right now.”

The mayor also touted the possibility of new green jobs in the area should the solar array plan come to fruition.  

Kimbrough presented the plan to constituents at a community meeting Thursday at Word of Life Christian Center on Clarksville Pike. 

Also in attendance were state Rep. Vincent Dixie, Titans representative Adolpho Birch III and mayor’s office representatives Bob Mendes and Brian Sexton (plus a handful of both former and future councilmembers, as one attendee quipped).

Residents were fired up and largely outraged, both by the proposal to bring more dirt to the district and by the potential development of a solar array on the site.

“We can’t get anything over here nice other than trash, dirt, something that’s going to be undesirable,” one woman said. “It just seems to always come back here.”

Dixie relayed information he recently received from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, which told him that retired landfills are typically mitigated by purchasing fill soil for $20 to $30 per cubic yard (the Titans’ dirt would be free) and that the soil from the stadium site has been collected, analyzed and deemed safe by two different TDEC divisions. The agency also told Dixie that the closed Bordeaux landfill could be deemed fully mitigated in 2026, when it will have been closed for 30 years, and become open to development — but it’s unlikely any significant development could come to the site. Instead, less intrusive uses like a park or a solar array would be more likely to be approved.

Several concerns were repeated by multiple residents, with some seeking more information about how regulators know the dirt is actually clean and expressing outright opposition to anything remotely like this coming to the district, with its history of accepting some of the city’s undesirable necessities. Others questioned why development was not possible when MetroCenter was “built on a landfill.”

“I live in this district, too,” Dixie said. “We don’t want to be dumped on.”

One resident drew vocal support from many in attendance when he urged Kimbrough to pursue a park, not a solar array on the site. Mendes said the mayor’s office has already begun preliminary discussions about the possibility with the councilmember. Additionally, it remains likely that some level of soil will be required to finalize mitigation at the former landfill in the next couple of years, whether for a park or other uses.

“Sooner or later they are going to need clean dirt at this site, and they typically pay for it,” Mendes said. “This is an opportunity for dirt that doesn’t get paid for.”

Most of Mendes’ explanations did not convince the meeting attendees. Though Kimbrough met with the mayor about the situation on Thursday, she remains vocally opposed to moving any Titans dirt to the site.

“Don’t doubt my loyalty to you,” she said. “My loyalty is to you. I was born here. My kids were born here. This is my home.”

At one point, Kimbrough said the situation had been explained to her as the Titans had extra dirt and the team was “letting us have it.”

“They’re letting us have it, all right,” one resident responded.

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