Pretty much every drop of the Colorado River
is owned by someone.
When the Colorado River Compact was drafted in
the 1920s, it was based on barely 30 years of
streamflow records that suggested an average
annual flow of 17.5 million acre feet past Lee's
Ferry. Modern studies of tree rings revealed
that those three decades were probably the
wettest in the past 500 to 1,200 years – and
that the natural long-term annual flow past
Lee's Ferry is probably closer to 13.5 million
acre feet, as compared to the natural flow at
the mouth of 16.3 million acre feet. This has
resulted in more water being allocated to river
users than actually flows through the Colorado.As a result we've been in violation with a treaty with Mexico over the lack of promised water volume over most of that time as well. Again, too busy to find the link.
Or also to Southern California? So what if there's a few mountain ranges in the way?
I think pretty much any other solution will work better than digging a well in rural Wyoming and building a pipeline somewhere. For example, getting water from all the other places around Colorado. Why is this one particular spot in Wyoming so important?
Ignoring the "rural" aspect of what you're saying, the same can be said of Vegas. And most of Arizona. Not to mention, ahem, SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. You suggesting that the 20M+ people in SoCal should pick up and leave because there isn't enough water? Because there isn't, except if you count the water imported from COLORADO.
Colorado actually has PLENTY of water; it's just that legally we're bound to give it to others.
Aside from which point, infrastructure costs money. "Pick up and move elsewhere" isn't reasonable if "elsewhere" doesn't have the infrastructure for millions of people.
Did you actually read the comment thread before replying?
The water from Colorado (via the Colorado River) also supplies Utah, Arizona, Southern California, Nevada, and Mexico with water. All of those areas need more water; even if Colorado stays at its current demand level, you could imagine one or more of those areas funding a well in Wyoming to divert water to Colorado to either send directly down the river or to take the place of water that would otherwise be removed from the river, so that their allocation could be correspondingly increased. (Pretty much every drop of the Colorado River is owned by someone. [1])
Water is life. :)
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_River