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Costa Rican rain forests
By 1992 there may not be any. Costa Rica has been losing rain forests faster per capita than any other Latin American country. One problem is more people on the land —including refugees from El Salvador and Nicaragua. Living on tiny plots redistributed from big holdings, these farmers clear the land for coffee trees or firewood.
The other problem, to put it bluntly, is hamburgers. Boom times for fast food franchises mean boom times for beef. Costa Rican ranchers have been cutting down forests to raise cattle for the export market. Three-fourths of Costa Rica's deforested land is in pasture, the rest in farms.
Source: "The hands-on level of deforestation." Smithsonian. March 1987.
But what is the real problem?
The real problem, as the Rockford Institute and other conservative think tanks have long known, is probably your mother. If she had stayed home peeling the potatoes and adding soda crackers to the meatloaf, there would not be any fast food franchises and Costa Rica would still have its rain forests. Other problems that can be attributed to your mother are: divorce, teenage suicide, unemployment, low wages, child abuse, bad grades, creeping socialism and (among Caucasians only) declining birthrates. About the only disaster you can be sure your mom has not caused is high-sulfur coal. That was caused by framboids.
Framboids
Framboids are tiny spheres made up of even tinier pyrite crystals (iron sulfide). They are what's left after sulfur-eating bacteria transform the sulfate in seawater to sulfide. These bacteria formed colonies in vast Illinois peat swamps when the swamps were flooded by ancient seas. The peat turned into Herrin No. 6 and Springfield No. 5 coal, excellent thick seams but alas — full of framboids, which are hard to remove.
Source: The Natural Resources of Illinois. Illinois Natural History Survey, Department of Energy and Natural Resources. 1987.
Low-sulfur Illinois coal
It's found in what they call "the quality circle" down in Williamson, Franklin and Jefferson counties, and in other places too. In fact you are likely to find low-sulfur coal in Illinois when Herrin No. 6 or Springfield 5 is overlain by at least 20 feet of gray Serine shale.
Source: Ibid
Gray riverine shale
That shale was deposited when two long-departed Illinois rivers — the Walshville and the Galatia — overflowed their banks and dumped a lot of mud on the surrounding peat swamps. The mud (which later turned into shale) provided protection against the sulfur-bearing waters of encroaching seas.
The shale is found along what used to be the outside bends of these ancient rivers, and the coal under it has a sulfur content ranging from 0.5 to 2.5 percent. In Illinois we call that "low sulfur" (Nationwide it's more like medium.).
Source: Ibid
Transparent Illinois lakes
Okay. So you can't see a turtle 20 feet down in an Illinois lake, but how about a Secchi disk at 13 feet? A Secchi disk is an eight-inch disk with alternating black and white quadrants used to measure lake clarity. At Lake Petersburg, a private lake in Menard County, you could see one in 1985 at a mean distance of 156.3 inches below the surface. Pretty good considering that in 78 of the 120 lakes monitored, the Secchi disk disappeared at a depth of less than four feet — at which point (it says here) they're not recommended for swimming.
If you're looking for an opaque lake, we recommend Highland Silver in Madison County. In 1985 if you dropped something into Highland Silver, it was out of sight at an amazing 6.1 inches.
Source: 1985 Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program, Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA). Illinois Water Quality Report, July 1986.
Illustrious lakes
In terms of overall quality, the best Illinois lakes among 36 intensively monitored by the IEPA in 1984 and 1985 were:
Mill Creek in Clark County
Mingo in Vermilion County
Siloam Springs in Adams County
Devil's Kitchen in Williamson County
The rankings were based on the amount of impairment from sediment and plant life and the lake's mean Trophic State Index (TSI), which measures not only clarity but phosphorus and chlorophyll. If you have a TSI rating of over 50 — as do most Illinois lakes — you're well on the way to becoming a peat swamp. The four lakes listed here have ratings in the 40s, putting them in the middle-aged bracket. In Illinois we call that young.
Source: 1984 and 1985 Agency Lake Monitoring Program. Ibid.
Bad news lakes
The IEPA calls them "nonsupport lakes." Among the 36 monitored in 1984 and 1985, eight were classified as "nonsupport": Paris West in Edgar County, Decatur in Macon County, Skokie Lagoons in Cook County, Washington in Washington County, Crab Orchard in Williamson County, Raccoon in Marion County, Nashville in Washington County, and Highland Silver. Among lakes with "identified toxics problems, primarily from chlordane, dieldrin and PCBs" were Paris East and Paris West in Edgar County, Springfield in Sangamon County, Crab Orchard and Decatur. Source: Ibid.
General funds: squeaking along
The general funds balance at the end of August was a measly $17,206 million. The average daily available balance was $139,722 million.
Source: Office of the State Comptroller.
Jobs: third record in a row
The seasonally adjusted U.S. unemployment rate remained at 6.0 percent in August. Illinois' seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped to 7.0 percent from 7.3 percent in July.
Illinois' civilian labor force increased to 5.819 million people in August. The number of people employed rose to 5.409 million, up 53,000 from July and breaking the record for the third straight month. This was the first time since March 1980 that unemployment has been close to the 400,000 mark. The jobs came from increases in all seasonal outdoor activities, construction, eating and drinking, wholesale and retail, and amusements and recreation. Even manufacturing jobs were up by 700.
Final June unemployment rates in the state's major metro areas were:
Aurora-Elgin, 5.7 percent.
Bloomington-Normal, 4.8 percent.
Champaign-Urbana-Rantoul, 4.8 percent.
Chicago, 7.2 percent.
Davenport, Rock Island, Moline (Illinois sector), 8.6 percent.
Decatur, 9.6 percent.
Joliet, 8.1 percent.
Kankakee, 9.7 percent.
Lake County, 4.7 percent.
Peoria, 8.5 percent.
Rockford, 11.0 percent.
Springfield, 5.4 percent.
St. Louis (Illinois sector), 9.9 percent.
Source: Department of Employment Security.
Margaret S. Knoepfle
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