Pocahontas County Solid Waste Authority Fires Landfill Manager Chris McComb

At the very end of the October 28^th Pocahontas County Solid Waste Authority’s (SWA’s) regular meeting, the board went into an executive session to discuss and consider action on the Landfill Manager’s performance. About 10 minutes into that closed session, SWA Board Chairman Gail Siers returned to the meeting room to ask for a Deputy Sheriff to come into the executive session meeting. When they returned into open session, they passed a motion to fire Landfill Manager Chris McComb on a 3 to 2 vote, with only members David Henderson and Phil Cobb voting against that motion. After they adjourned the meeting, Siers told me that had we been in that closed meeting, we would have seen some very disgraceful behavior by a member.

McComb later told us he was extremely upset by the decision to fire him and because he is the only person at the landfill licensed as a “Manager of Landfill Operations” (MOLO,) there is now no one there with the required MOLO certification to oversee the landfill operation.

Also at the meeting, the members, again by the same 3 to 2 votes, approved hiring Bob Martin as the SWA’s attorney.

In another matter, they approved -again by the same 3 to 2 votes, to allow SWA Board Member Darryll Roach to assist as needed with the work at the landfill. Member Henderson attempted to prevent Roach from voting on this motion since it would be a conflict of interest for Roach to vote to allow himself to assist at the landfill.  Siers, the SWA Chairman, ruled that since Roach would be a non-paid volunteer, there is no conflict.

There was also a discussion about Jacob Meck’s Allegheny Disposal Company building a “transloading station” in Greenbank. Meck’s attorney sent a letter to the SWA informing them that since the SWA had requested Meck to attend this meeting, he believed the SWA intended to question his client about the facility which Meck is building on his own property in Green Bank to haul trash. He suggested that the SWA seems to be more interested in “driving social media engagement” about this than in truly understanding the community benefits of Allegheny Disposal’s operation. He said he has instructed his client to not answer the SWA’s questions. Siers said that since Meck was building a “truck to truck” transloading station, not a transfer station, for his own business’s use, the SWA does not have authority to stop him, but suggested the citizens of Green Bank look to see if such a facility violated any local building codes. Meck later provided us with a copy of this letter. State Solid Waste Board Chairman Mark Holstine later confirmed to us that as long as Meck’s facility was only handling his own clients’ solid waste and disposing of it at another county’s landfill, the SWA has no power to stop him. Holstine added that this could, however, significantly raise the cost of the SWA’s future trash disposal because many of the disposal costs are fixed no matter how many tons of waste are disposed of. He said that Allegheny Disposal has been the largest disposal source in the county so losing that company’s tipping fees will hurt the SWA financially.

The SWA provided us with a copy of a WV Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP’s) Notice of Civil, Administrative Penalty, dated October 20, 2026, and sent to the SWA. It is a proposed draft penalty against the SWA of $72,682 for violations at the landfill that occurred in and beyond January of 2025, and continues through at least September 1, 2026 without correction. It said the SWA could request an informal hearing on this, or ask for a reduction in it due to inability to pay, but they must respond within 10 days from this notice. The SWA will attempt to address this with the DEP.

They also discussed the WV Public Service Commission’s (PSC’s) decision in October to drop two cases against the county SWA. One was filed by the PSC’s staff in May of 2026 regarding the status of the landfill’s pending closure. That was dropped because an engineering firm has extended the life of the landfill until at least March of 2027. The second case was also filed in May of 2026 by WV Delegate Jonathan Kyle against the SWA for proceeding with a proposed plan to build a transfer station without holding the needed Certificate of Need. This was dropped because the SWA has not yet presented any specific solid waste proposals so the PSC cannot determine if a Certificate of Need is required or not.