The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Thursday rejected an application for a proposed 500-mile pipeline project that sought to pump water from Wyoming to the Front Range.

In response, the developer said he would seek a re-hearing.

If it had been approved, the application by Wyco Power and Water Inc. would have allowed it to move forward with plans to pump water from the Green River in Wyoming. The commission is the second federal agency to deny the Flaming Gorge Project. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers terminated its review of the pipeline in July.

Conservation groups have opposed the project, which they contend would decrease flows of the Green River by around 25 percent. They characterized the regulatory commission's decision as a major blow to the project.

"The Flaming Gorge Pipeline is no closer to reality today than it was 10 years ago," Stacy Tellinghuisen, water and energy policy analyst at Boulder-based Western Resource Advocates, said in a statement. "This denial essentially says that the pipeline proposal is nowhere near being ready for even a preliminary permit."

Gary Wockner, director of Save the Poudre, said the project would harm the Colorado River, which is fed by