Flyover Friday, March 1, 2024A flyover from this weeks top heartland stories including:Texas Is On Fire | Colorado Oil Wells Are Not So Well | Missouri Meat Packing Ponds Stink | Kansas legislators behave like bullies | Texas AG Making Lists Of Undesirables SOURCES: The heartland collective, Missouri independent, Kansas Reflector, Colorado Sun, Associated Press, Advocate and journalist - Erin Reed’s blog, Erin In the MorningEvery thing is bigger in Texas, Including The States Largest Ever WildFirehttps://apnews.com/article/texas-panhandle-fire-evacuations-cbbb6a279bef1bd020722ed48927114aSTINNETT, Texas (AP) — A dusting of snow covered a desolate landscape of scorched prairie, dead cattle and burned out homes in the Texas Panhandle on Thursday, giving firefighters brief relief in their desperate efforts to corral a blaze that has grown into the largest in state history.The Smokehouse Creek fire grew to nearly 1,700 square miles (4,400 square kilometers). It merged with another fire and is just 3% contained, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service.Gray skies loomed over huge scars of blackened earth in a rural area dotted with scrub brush, ranchland, rocky canyons and oil rigs. In Stinnett, a town of about 1,600, someone propped up an American flag outside of a destroyed home.Colorado Oil Well Eye Sores Subject of new law suithttps://coloradosun.com/2024/02/24/colorado-orphaned-oil-wells-cleanup-lawsuit/It is just one orphan well among an estimated 1,800 in Colorado, but a lawsuit filed in Adams County District Court contends it is part of a large, fraudulent scheme to dump old, played-out wells onto the state.Adams County leads the state in orphan wells with 318. “It is a serious concern for the county and a growing concern as the number keeps increasing incrementally,” said Gregory Dean, the county’s oil and gas administrator.The lawsuit, in which McCormick and her husband, Ronald, are among the plaintiffs, focuses on Denver-based HRM Resources LLC, which was the recipient of hundreds of low-producing oil and gas wells from some of the state’s largest operators.For Adams County, orphan wells have been a big problem. Since July 2021 there have been 75 leaks and spills from orphan wells and 92% of the orphan well sites checked by county oil and gas inspectors were out of compliance.The lawsuit is seeking monetary damages. HRM currently has no active wells, according to the Colorado Energy and Carbon Management database, and in the last four years produced the equivalent of 550 barrels of oil.The company has been financed by Los Angeles-based Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, which according to its website manages $34 billion in investments, many in niche areas including oil and gas fields. The company is mentioned but not named as a defendant.https://www.coloradoan.com/story/news/2017/05/02/cut-abandoned-gas-line-caused-firestone-home-explosion/309230001/In April 2017, in nearby FIRESTONE CO — A home explosion that killed two people was caused by unrefined natural gas that was leaking from a small abandoned pipeline from a nearby well, fire officials saidThe April 17 explosion in Firestone about 30 miles (48 kilometers) north of Denver happened when the odorless gas in the old line leaked into the soil and made its way into the home's basement, Ted Poszywak, chief of the Frederick-Firestone fire department, said Tuesday.Investigators do not know how or when the small pipe was cut. The house was within 200 feet (60 meters) of the well, and the pipeline was buried about 7 feet (2.1 meters) underground.Missouri Meatpacking Plant Lagoon Wretched Stenchhttps://missouriindependent.com/2024/02/29/missouri-house-bill-takes-aim-at-cesspool-of-meatpacking-sludge/Between Vallerie Steele, her seven siblings and their children, there’s always a birthday or anniversary to celebrate on the family’s southwest Missouri farm. The summer months are typically a parade of pool parties and barbecues.Until last year. The stench coming from the lagoon