Sources

The claim: “78% of hazardous liquid pipeline leaks evade SCADA and CPM. 21% are found by the public.”

• Leak Detection Study — Final Report No. 12-173
  Kiefner & Associates for PHMSA · December 2012

  The authoritative method-level breakdown. Analyzed hazardous liquid right-of-way incidents January 2010 – July 2012 and found that CPM systems identified only ~20% of leaks and SCADA systems only ~28%. Of 264 incidents where a CPM system was operational at the time of failure, CPM detected the leak just 19% of the time. Roughly 21% of leaks were discovered by the public — neighbors who noticed a sheen, smelled hydrocarbons, or observed dead vegetation.

• Project 859 — Leak Detection Technology Study
  PHMSA Office of Pipeline Safety R&D

  PHMSA's own R&D project summary citing the Kiefner findings. A useful cross-reference from PHMSA's research portal if the full Kiefner PDF is slow to load.

The claim: “A moderate undetected crude oil leak on a Texas gathering line costs roughly $6,800 per hour.”

• Valuation of Crude Oil Spills in Transportation Incidents
  PHMSA / U.S. DOT · April 2023

  Analysis of 3,734 onshore crude oil incidents from 2005–2022 with $4.56 billion in total costs. The authoritative cost-per-barrel dataset. Median total cost for pipeline spills ≥ 1 barrel: $3,444/barrel. The $1,000/bbl remediation default used in the ticker is deliberately below this median — the full PHMSA median would push the ticker to roughly $19,000/hr.

• Liquid Pipeline Leak Rate Estimation Study
  PHMSA / Pipeline Research Council International

  Documents that pinholes account for 54% of all hazardous liquid pipeline releases — and that these leaks typically fall below the 1–5% of throughput threshold that CPM systems can detect. This is why the 5 bbl/hr default in the ticker represents the most common real-world leak mode, not an edge case.

• Texas Natural Resources Code §81.0531
  Texas Legislature · RRC penalty authority

  Establishes Railroad Commission of Texas penalty authority: up to $10,000/day per oil & gas violation, or $200,000/day for pipeline safety violations (with $2M maximum per series). Each day of a continuing violation counts as a separate violation. Used for the RRC component of the $35,000/day penalty exposure in the ticker.

• Texas Water Code §7.052
  Texas Legislature · TCEQ penalty authority

  Establishes Texas Commission on Environmental Quality penalty authority: up to $25,000/day per violation (up to $40,000/day enhanced for repeat violators). Covers unauthorized discharge, failure to report, and air emissions. Used for the TCEQ component of the $35,000/day penalty exposure in the ticker.

The claim: “126,760 miles of Texas gathering pipeline operate under reporting-only federal oversight.”

• Texas Pipeline System Mileage Report
  Railroad Commission of Texas · 2025

  State-level breakdown of 472,790 total pipeline miles in Texas. Of the gathering-line portion, only 46,477 miles are under full 49 CFR 192/195 safety regulation. The remaining 126,760 miles are reporting-only — required to report incidents and mileage but NOT subject to integrity management, in-line inspection, pressure testing, or construction-quality mandates.

• New Federal Regulations Add More Than 400,000 Miles of Gas Gathering Pipelines Under Federal Oversight
  PHMSA / U.S. DOT · November 2021

  PHMSA's own acknowledgment that 425,000+ miles of onshore gas gathering lines were previously unregulated before the 2021 rulemaking. Even after the expansion, much of that mileage sits in the Type R (reporting only) category with no integrity management mandate.

The claim: “29 million gallons of produced water, 143 days of continuous leaking, $85 million in fines.”

• North Dakota Pipeline Company to Pay $35 Million for Clean Water Act Violations
  U.S. EPA / DOJ press release · February 2017

  The official DOJ/EPA announcement of the Summit Midstream settlement for the Blacktail Creek spill near Williston, North Dakota (August 2014 – January 2015). The release leaked undetected for 143 days, totaled ~29 million gallons of produced water, contaminated 2,700 acres and 30+ miles of Missouri River tributaries, and resulted in $85 million in total fines and cleanup costs. The DOJ described it as the largest inland spill in U.S. history.