What’s brown and dirty and something you’ll pay to have – but only if it’s where you want it to be?.

Dirt.

If it’s not where you want, it has to be moved, and that’s a predicament facing land developers in Warren County. There’s plenty of dirt- look at the hills – but its instances of being in the right places are growing fewer and fewer.

&#8220If you’re going to build something in Warren County, you’re going to have to cut down a hill or fill up a hole,” said Don Miller of Riverside Construction.

Pat Daughtry is the owner of Daughtry Construction Company and, along with fellow developer Rusty Ragsdale, is working to build a subdivision off Gibson Road near Halls Ferry.

He told about the first time he walked that piece of land.

&#8220‘Dirt pit’ was the first thing that hit my mind,” he said.

He needed dirt anyway – to fill in holes to make more lots in Belle Meade subdivision, about a mile away as the crow flies.

And for Daughtry, just like any developer, the major cost of acquiring dirt is having it moved. So &#8220a mile” was quite inviting.

He said many of the county’s older subdivisions include lots, including some Daughtry owns, that have been left undeveloped because too much dirt was required to fill them.

If a hill is being cut down and all the dirt from it isn’t needed elsewhere on the construction site, the contractor who’s leveling the hill has generally been willing to offer the excess free of charge to any other contractor who will take it away then, Daughtry said.

A Vicksburg contractor who clears land and prepares sites for construction, Bruce Massey of Massey Land and Timber, said that when he needs fill dirt he’s also having to look harder to find it.

&#8220It’s just really hard to find dirt, especially commercial dirt, like in a pit, unless you’ve got a hill or two that you can dig into,” Massey said.

To procure dirt when and as close as possible to where there’s a need – such as for construction of a casino project – some developers will buy land just so they can take dirt from it and then resell it without the dirt, Massey added. Developers of such large projects sometimes need extra fill dirt because of engineering requirements.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Resource Conservation Service’s district conservationist for Warren County, Raymond Joyner, said most of the dirt contractors use for fill is the loess soil that is common to Warren County.

&#8220It has the consistency of compacted dust,” Joyner said, adding loess can erode easily without grass or other plants growing in it to hold it in place.

Owners of Warren County land with such erosion-preventive cover have generally become more aware of the function that cover provides, Joyner said. Because of that increased awareness, such owners have become less likely to give or sell dirt from their land.

Daughtry and Ellis Tillotson of KELT Construction are clearing about 1.3 acres they own on along U.S. 61 North south of its intersection with Sherman Avenue. They’ve owned the property and have had it for sale for several years and said they decided to clear it last year.

&#8220Most people cannot envision a lot as a hill,” Daughtry said.

The project will require the removal of about 7,000 cubic yards of dirt to lower the elevation of the tract to near the level of U.S. 61 North.

Daughtry said once the decision was made to remove that much dirt, &#8220We got on the phone and started calling people we know who need dirt.” No takers have yet been found, however, he added.

Joyner agreed that the continuing development of the county is changing its topography as more hills are leveled.

Miller added, though, that dirt will continue to be available as long as contractors are willing to move it.

&#8220Constant activity over the years has depleted the close-in supply (of fill dirt),” Miller said. &#8220There’s still plenty there. I wouldn’t say we’re in a dirt crisis.”