Musical Composition Reminds Us of the Imperative to Respect Our Fresh Waters

“Linda and I recently spent a particularly interesting evening at Orchestra Hall.  The Detroit Symphony Orchestra played a very familiar work by Sergei Rachmaninoff, a work less familiar to us by Bela Bartok, and the World Premiere of a new piece titled “Oil & Water,” 18 minutes long, by mid-career composer Juliet Palmer.  “Oil & Water” was commissioned through the Elaine Lebenbom Memorial Award for Female Composers, which Palmer won during the 2017-2018 Season.

Writing in Performance: The Magazine of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Composer Palmer says:

”Water flows between the Great Lakes cities of Detroit and Toronto, where I live.  Looking at the map, I am reminded of Ojibway Elder Josephine Mandamin, who has walked around each of the Great Lakes to honor and pray for the water. Her dedication made me wonder how a piece of orchestral music could weave together places and stories relating to the struggle for clean water.  Oil & Water journeys through field recordings chronicling the ecological and the political watershed: the voices of protestors at Standing Rock, holding steadfast against police water cannons; the shouts of Detroit’s citizens blocking the water shutoff trucks; mechanical hums and thrums of Toronto’s water pumping station; the exuberant rhythms of Crazy Woman Creek in Wyoming’s Bighorn Mountains; the chants of citizens defending the Salish Sea from increased oil tanker traffic; and the rhythmic counterpoint of spring peepers in Ottawa’s Mer Bleue wetland.  Traditional teachings remind us that water never gives up, overcoming all obstacles in its way.  May we do water justice.”

May we do water justice indeed; and in that spirit, it is difficult to listen to Oil & Water without thinking of the struggle to end the risk posed by Enbridge Oil’s Line 5.  A 2016 study of the pipeline from the well-respected University of Michigan Water Center contained the following Key Findings:

• More than 700 miles of shoreline in Lakes Michigan and Huron and on their islands are potentially vulnerable to an oil spill in the Straits (to the extent that cleanup would be required).

• In a single case (worst case), more than 150 miles of shoreline could be impacted with a spill amount of 25,000 barrels. The maximum amount of shoreline impacted for a 10,000 barrel spill is more than 100 miles and for a 5,000 barrel spill is more than 70 miles.

• More than 15% of Lake Michigan’s open water (3,528 square miles), and nearly 60% of Lake Huron’s open water (13,611 square miles) could be affected by a spill in the Straits.

Enbridge has proposed to replace the current pipeline, vulnerable to ship anchor strikes and other damage, with a new pipeline encased in a concrete tunnel 100 feet below the Straits lakebed, by 2024, under agreements negotiated with former Governor Snyder.    However, Attorney-General Dana Nessel has consistently questioned the constitutionality of those agreements, and Enbridge recently announced that it will take the State of Michigan to court to enforce them.  Environmentalists oppose any plan which preserves Line 5, pointing out that the tunnel would leave the risks of a pipeline catastrophe in place for at least five more years (earlier estimates were 7-10 years) and that the oil pipeline serves Enbridge and Canada’s needs, not the needs of Michigan residents.

Composer Palmer reminds us through her music of the imperative to respect our fresh waters. There is a side in pipeline conflicts which understands the risk of water pollution, and a side which is more concerned with the risk to profit.  These sides are as immiscible as, well, oil and water. ”

Steve Gold is on the Advisory Panel of the Population Health Blog for Authority Health.