Comments closed September 23
Stop Cumberland River harbor expansion at Nashville
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers · Cumberland River at Mile 180, Nashville, Davidson County, Tennessee
- What
- A ready-mix company wants federal permits to dredge and armor the Cumberland River shoreline for commercial barge use.
- Where
- Cumberland River at Mile 180, Nashville, Davidson County, Tennessee, Cumberland River riparian zone and shoreline, TN
- How much
- Riverine habitat and water quality at Cumberland River Mile 180 are at risk from harbor dredging, sheet pile sea wall construction, and shoreline riprap armoring.
- Decided
- Comments closed September 23, 2026. No decision document is on file yet.Date from Army Corps public notice (Regulatory Request System) ↗, read August 24, 2026.
Where these four lines come from
- WhatOur plain-English read of the Army Corps public notice ↗. Check it against the agency’s own words under Case.
- WhereThe places and states the notice names, as PLAN read them.
- How muchThe first sentence of our What’s at risk read of the notice; the whole read is under Case.
- DecidedSeptember 23, 2026, from Army Corps public notice (Regulatory Request System), its comment end date ↗. Read August 24, 2026. The decision document is the one on file in PLAN’s record.
- Read from PLAN’s record November 10, 2026.
What the proposal said, and what the decision did
No figure from the proposal has been checked against the decision on this fight yet. What the record does hold is the issues ledger below.
No decision document is on PLAN’s record for this fight yet. When the agency’s decision lands, what it answered goes here.
PLAN's read: high threat
A ready-mix company wants federal permits to dredge and armor the Cumberland River shoreline for commercial barge use.
What’s at risk
If this goes through
Our plain-English read of the official notice ↗. Check it against the agency’s own words below.
The agency’s own analysis
What the notice says, and what it leaves out
The window has closed; the record of what was missing stays.
The agency says
“The Applicant has not proposed any compensatory mitigation.”
The applicant has proposed no compensatory mitigation whatsoever for the permanent loss of riverbed and shoreline habitat, yet the document identifies eleven federally listed threatened or endangered species that may occur at this location, including the endangered Pink mucket mussel, which lives in the riverbed being dredged.
The agency says
“This Property does Lie Within a Flood Hazard Area as Depicted on the Current Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRM) Numbers 47037C0234H dated 4/5/2017.”
The document acknowledges that the site lies within a flood hazard area as shown on FIRM panel 47037C0234H, with a 100-year flood elevation of 410.36 feet.
The agency says
“Future Wetland - Excavate to Elev 390 Plant with Native Wetland Species”
The document describes a 'Future Wetland' area on the site plan that is to be excavated to elevation 390 feet and planted with native wetland species, but this area is presented only as a label on a drawing.
The agency says
“All appropriate technical analyses including geotechnical, structural, hydraulic and hydrologic, real estate, construction, and operations and maintenance requirements will be conducted.”
The document states that the Section 408 review will evaluate whether the proposed alteration to Corps flowage easement Tract CHE_K-1100-E will affect the Cheatham Lake civil works project, and lists geotechnical, structural, hydraulic, hydrologic, real estate, construction, and operations and maintenance analyses as required.
AVOIDANCE AND MINIMIZATION OF IMPACTS TO WATERS OF THE U.S. ↗
The agency says
“the applicant has restricted the project footprint to the expansion of an existing, active industrial transloading facility rather than constructing a new 'greenfield' harbor elsewhere on the Cumberland River.”
The avoidance and minimization section claims the project footprint has been restricted to an existing active industrial facility rather than a greenfield site, and that the sheet pile wall has been 'configured to the minimum width necessary.' No alternatives analysis is presented: no consideration of smaller fleet expansions, no evaluation of alternative sites, and no explanation of why increasing capacity from 4 to 15 barges is the minimum needed.
HISTORIC AND CULTURAL RESOURCES ↗
The agency says
“The applicant conducted a Phase I cultural resource survey for the proposed project site and submitted the results with their application.”
The document identifies the Phase I cultural resource survey as having been conducted and submitted by the applicant, but provides no findings, no determination of eligibility, and no Corps review conclusion.
The agency says
“All excavated material will be placed permanently in a self-contained upland disposal site, utilizing Best Management Practices to prevent any return water or runoff from entering the river or adjacent wetlands.”
The document states that all excavated material will be placed permanently in a self-contained upland disposal site and that best management practices will prevent return water from entering the river, but the 264,068 cubic yards of upland excavation and the fill area raised to elevation 422 feet are on land the document acknowledges lies within a flood hazard area.
The agency says
“accommodate a projected 2- to 3-fold increase in regional aggregate demand over the next 20 years, supporting sustained public and commercial infrastructure growth in the greater Nashville metropolitan area.”
The notice projects a two- to three-fold increase in regional aggregate demand over the next 20 years as the need justifying expansion from 4 to 15 barges, but provides no supporting data, no source citation, and no independent verification of this demand forecast.
In the agency’s own words
The US Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District has issued a public notice regarding a permit application by Smyrna Ready Mix for the proposed Hollingshead Harbor Expansion project, located along the Cumberland River at Mile 180 in Nashville, Davidson County, Tennessee. The project seeks authorization under Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act and Section 404 of the Clean Water Act as well as a Section 408 permission to expand commercial barge fleeting and transloading capabilities through harbor dredging, upland sediment disposal, sheet pile sea wall construction, and shoreline riprap armoring. The USACE i…
Who signs it
The notice names no signer PLAN could read. PLAN names a decision-maker only when the document names one.
The ground
The window has closed, so there’s no watch to set on it here.
In court on this ground
This fight isn’t bound to a land unit in PLAN’s record yet, so there are no court cases to show for its ground.
Who holds the vote
PLAN’s record doesn’t tie a member of Congress to this fight yet. The scorecard grades the votes and bills that decide public lands; nothing joins a vote or a bill to this decision, so there’s no member to name here without guessing.
See how your members vote ↗Army CorpsWe track this on the agency’s own system of record, where most on-the-ground decisions live.
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