Pipeline Safety Administration buried pipe property verification (2010s)

45,000 miles of buried oil and gas distribution pipe, much of it installed in the 1940s–50s. DOT requirement that pipeline companies prove the in-ground properties. Motivates Belmar's instrumented scratch-test commercialization.

He's working with people down in Houston, because the Pipeline Safety Administration of the Department of Transportation has now told the pipeline companies: you've got 45,000 miles of pipe buried in the ground for distribution of oil and gas in this country. Much of it was put in in the 1940s and 50s. We want you to prove the properties of this stuff that's in the ground, because they've had some ruptures, and people don't like 50,000 gallons of crude oil in their backyard or in their lake.