Marcellus Shale Informational Forum

State Rep. Ryan Aument hosted a public forum on Marcellus Shale on Tuesday, Aug. 23, at Centerville Middle School. The event was designed to give the public a chance to question lawmakers, industry reps and government officals on the safety of natural-gas drilling.


©Aaron Nutter, Marcellus Shale Informational Forum, Centerville PA

The Panel Representers were, David Spigelmyer who is Vice President of Goverment relastions at Chesapeake Energy, Mark Lauriello who is Preseident and CEO of Rettew Associates, Inc and Thomas Bergen from Heartman, Underhill & Brubaker LLP.

On the other side, we had George E. W. Love who is the Bureau DIrector & PA State Geologist, Jim Kline from the Department of Environmental Protection and John Arway, the Executive Director of PA Fish & Boat Commission.


©Aaron Nutter, a piece of the marcellus shale

John Arway was by far the most important speaker at the forum. The PA fish and Boat Commission are the current police of the Marcellus Shale Gas fields. Although if you ask Mr. Arway he will tell you that policing the fields is not what his department should be doing. In his eye, the gas industry should be more like the oil and coal. They should be responsible and able to clean up there own mistakes. Heavily underfunded, the PA Fish and Boat commission run around and inspect every environmental disaster left by Marcellus Shale. The only real source of funding they receive is through the purchase of fishing licenses. They are usually too late going to locations to stop any contamination. Since running all over the fields the Pa fish and boat commission cannot focus on their real jobs, which is to watch and protect people on the waterways, especially around the holidays.