Water pipeline plan takes shape

An ambitious plan to build a 560-mile-long pipeline to pump water from southwest Wyoming's Flaming Gorge Reservoir to southeast Wyoming and the Front Range in Colorado is moving forward. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials said this week the agency is beginning work on an environmental impact statement that will analyze the impacts of the proposed regional water supply project. Army Corps project manager Rena Brand said the agency has scheduled public "scoping" meetings in Green River on April 14 and Laramie on April 16 to discuss the project. Colorado businessman Aaron Million has been quietly shopping the idea around for almost four years. The private water development group, Million Conservation Resource Group, has filed for permits to start the approval process. Million envisions building the pipeline -- which would draw water from intake points located on Flaming Gorge Reservoir and upstream on the Green River in Sweetwater County -- at an estimated cost of $4 billion...Caspar Star-Tribune