Engineers Determine Pocahontas Landfill Life Extended By 1.9 years

During their July 22^nd regular meeting, the Pocahontas County Solid Waste Authority (SWA) announced that their engineering company has determined that the county landfill, which had previously been expected to be filled up and closed at the end of 2026 or very early in 2027, actually has 1.9 years of use left. That determination was based upon their examination of the landfill in June of 2026. This will push the closing date of the landfill up to sometime in 2028.

With this additional time to develop an alternative process to dispose of the county’s household solid waste as well as construction and demolition debris, the members decided to put out new requests for proposals for future collection and disposal. Authority President Dave Henderson emphasized that these requests for proposals would not be limited to just transfer stations, but include every idea for any and every disposal method. They set a 45-day time period for the proposals to be submitted once the formal announcement is published by the SWA in the Pocahontas Times, the Charleston Gazette and the Inter-Mountain in Elkins.

The SWA also extended the early-pay discount on their green box annual fees from September to November 15^th because their new billing system remains unable to accept payments or send out bills.

The SWA’s Attorney, David Sims telephonically delivered the following updates on the status of Magistrate Court cases regarding delinquent green box fees. One hundred and fifty-six (156) cases have been filed, resulting in $12,000 in delinquent fees being received to date. They anticipate filing more cases next month. Sims added that they are also considering making payment arrangements with some people.  Regarding the pending Public Service Commission (PSC) cases against the SWA, Sims said the SWA has filed pleadings and additional information, and are uploading relevant audio files to the PSC.

Regarding the landfill, Chris McComb, the Landfill Manager said there had recently been some delays in transporting waste from the green box sites to the landfill because of mechanical problems with their garbage trucks. He said they only have two garbage trucks, a 2024 truck which when it breaks down leaves them with only a 1995 truck which is constantly breaking down and very difficult and expensive to repair and get parts for. He said leasing another front-load garbage truck would cost about $10,000 a month.

Also at the meeting, the SWA members voted to pay CENTEC Engineering, LLC $1,500 to design new fill plans for the landfill, and they also renewed their contract with Global Science Technology to provide support for their Information Technology (or IT) network and equipment.

There was some controversy before the meeting because the agenda did not provide for a public comment period.