You are now in San Diego County category.

San Diego has built out massive water infrastructure systems over the years that are now standing idle as water demand drops.

“This winter, demand for water was so low that the San Diego County Water Authority temporarily idled a $160 million plant in San Marcos that it built less than a decade ago. Water agencies that went into debt building treatment plants still have to pay up, whether the plant is needed every day or not,” Voice of San Diego recently reported.

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said the United States and Mexico are making important progress in talks on a new accord to share water from the Colorado River, which is badly over-tapped and approaching critical shortage levels.

American and Mexican officials have been negotiating an agreement to replace their current five-year accord, which expires in 2017. Jewell said she is optimistic about those talks, and also about recent negotiations between states on sharing cutbacks if the levels of reservoirs continue to drop.

Gov. Jerry Brown Friday announced the appointment of a Chula Vista man to the California Fish and Game Commission.

Peter Silva, 63, has been president and chief executive officer at Silva-Silva International since 2011. He served as assistant administrator for water at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from 2009 to 2011, senior policy advisor at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California from 2005 to 2009 and vice chair at the State Water Resources Control Board from 2000 to 2005.

The Emergency & Carryover Storage Project (E&CSP) in San Diego is one of the most important infrastructure projects constructed in the United States in the last century. In the naturally dry and arid regions of southern California, 80 percent of the water is imported from hundreds of miles away from more abundant resources in Northern California and the Colorado River.  This leaves all of southern California, especially the San Diego region, susceptible to disruptions in the water delivery system, namely from earthquakes, statewide system failures, or extreme droughts and other water shortages.

During your next meal, I encourage you to look down at your plate. More closely. No matter if you live in San Diego or Baltimore, chances are, one or more of the foods on that plate was grown or raised right here in California. With nearly half of American-grown nuts, fruits and vegetables produced in California, the state is on your plate.

But the delicious and diverse array of California food available to us is only half the story.