Interview With Julia "Judy" Bonds - Part I

BR: Tell me a little about yourself, whatever you feel comfortable about.

JB: I’m a coal miner’s daughter. I was raised in the coal fields. Coal’s been in my life – all my life. My brother was a coal miner – he retired as a federal mine inspector. My father died of black lung. He was the hardest working man I’ve ever seen in my life – I admire him before anyone. He was mainly the reason I walked in the Blair March, the reenactment, was to honor my father. I wish I could have done more for my father. He raised seven kids. We were a close knit family. My nephews were all coal miners. My brother-in-law retied as a superintendent of a coal company. I’ve dealt with coal all my life – I know how coal companies work and operate. At one time in this area Armco still had their coal companies here. It was a booming area.. Everyone had a job – the schools were full. Armco was a family coal company – we had picnics every year. Excursions. They got involved in the school processes since their bosses children attended school here.

BR: You’ve burst upon the environmental scene with both feet a-running. What were the factors to get you so involved?

JB: When Peabody came in in the late 80's, and bought Armco out, they shut down the mines within a year and then sold out to Massey. Massey laid off 400 to 600 union miners. MB [a local citizen] had some pull in Charleston so he arranged for these men to have extended unemployment benefits, and sent to classes to be trained in other areas. Most of these men knew that was the way to go because Massey was non-union, and they knew they couldn’t work for those people. And most of them didn’t. A lot of these men work at other places [for much lower pay]. They’re a lot like the rest of West Virginia, they’re the working poor, but they prefer this because they know how Massey treats their men now.

We had eleven working mines in this area.. They have managed to shut down three schools. Our community is dying. There are only two families left in my community at Paxville [two miles from Whitesville]. I live right besides Marfork Coal company’s office building. Their helicopter pad is probably a football field from my home. It’s hard living up there ... I’ll bet there are at least 50 to 60 coal trucks every day, in and out. They put in extra train tracks – there’s 120 cars at least four or five times a day – this is all day and all night long, and it’s a constant irritation. After they bought out the last person above us, they asked the DOH [WV Department of Transport- ation] to abandon the road from my house up, and they’re planning to move the guard shack right to my front door, I guess.

That’s a total mess. We have violation after violation of the Clean Water Act of black water in the Little Marsh Fork which is the creek that runs by my house. Constantly. Call DEP [WV Div of Enviro Protect.], they come in and check it out, write a violation. The problem is that these companies are smart. They know the DEP works Monday through Friday – lots of these violations are on weekends. You call them and by the time they contact the person on duty and get to check the violation out, its gone by then. It has to be a DEP person or EPA – can’t use photos or deputize a local person.

I think the worst time was the fish kill. About two years ago, my grandson played in the Little Marsh Fork, the creek I played in as a girl, the creek my grandfather played in, my daughters played in. We were walking and he was running through the creek and he said, "Maw-maw, what’s wrong with these fish?" Dead fish all over the creek. I screamed at him to get out of that water. It was a chemical and they let too much of it into the impoundment and it seeped down into the creek, at least that’s their story.

BR: So its been a constant irritation. Could it be that you have to become an activist to keep from going crazy or going "postal?"

JB: (laughs) Yes, my neighbor threatens to take a shotgun and blow the train off the tracks. Five to six trips all day, all night by 120 cars – blow the whistle in the middle of the night, brakes squeal. The vibrations from the train [make] the whole house shake. The doors won’t shut properly. Have had to put three roofs on the house from the train and the helicopter flying by. The big shots – when they come in they fly in on these helicopters [which] shake everything and [there is] constant dust from coal. The helicopters send the dust flying everywhere. I have a huge sycamore tree that my father planted and they asked could they cut that tree down. [So I asked] "Why would you want to cut our tree down?" It irritates the helicopter pilots – they have a problem navigating through that. Well, with the tree gone they could fly in even lower on us, closer to our roof. They come in pretty weather sometimes two or three times a week. Flew in Underwood near last election time. Marfork flew him in to give him the grand tour.

They have a lot of accidents at Marfork – there’s one to two a week. We know because we can see the ambulances going up. We’ve asked them not to come in and fly directly over the tops of our house, but fly in over their property to come in and down unless there is an accident. The HealthNet -- we don’t mind them coming through, but we’ve repeatedly asked them, "Please don’t come in over us like that." It disturbs everything – it shakes our house. We’ve seen them twice about wreck on us because they couldn’t clear our trees. It’s a pretty scary thought – I’ve seen the guy take off and come very close to our chestnut tree.

BR: I hear that you like sports.

JB: I play all the sports, mostly with my grandson, but the only one I excel at is football. I can run, pass, kick, but I especially like to play defense.

BR: What would be in your history to give you such a regard for nature?

JB: As kids we’d play in the woods and just explore – it was so beautiful – there was something new every day. It was a community thing – everyone enjoyed nature and the wilderness – we took it for granted. [Today] technology has made us complacent, lazy. If you try to imagine what the people that settled this area went through ... there’s no way you can imagine it. Their lives were simpler and more honest – they lived closer to God than we can. You can go to church Sunday, but those people thanked God for everything – for the things that grew in the garden. They were closer to God than we’ll ever be.

I used to go for a walk up in Birch Hollow, but I can’t go up there any more. The mines have shut it completely off. (I can go up Marfork, but only to visit the family graveyard). I’d go up there and sit by a stream under a rock cliff and just think – other kids would do that, too. Sitting by the stream, watching it, listening to it, its wonderful.

Part II of the interview with Judy will appear in the next Highland Voice. Judy will explain how she got to be an activist, and what her vision is for the future of West Virginia and humankind on earth.