I need to get the names and numbers of all the acencies that require
permits or that have to give approval for dreging a lake in Southern
California.  My lake is located in the City of Canyon Lake 92587.  I
plan on removing 225,000 cubic yards of silt.

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Request for Question Clarification by kutsavi-ga on 21 Nov 2002 16:19 PST

Hi there,

Are you wanting to dredge Canyon Lake itself, or a lake on the golf
course at the country club?

Dreging the lake itself will have downstream reprocussions on Lake
Elsinore, so you might be entangled with the Metropolitan Water
District and all those state offices, along with Riverside County,
etc, etc.

Do you yourself own the property the lake is on?

Likely the local information is not online. If your phone book has
blue pages call some of the likely city numbers. You may have to talk
to more than a dozen people to get even a vague idea. No one will be
eager to approve that large an excavation, even if you are willing to
pay large fees. You do understand that lakes, streams etc are public
property, unless they dry up. Your dredging will affect the water
level at least temporarily, and will add considerable silt to the
outlet of the lake all the way to the ocean. There may be dangerous
toxic materials trapped in the silt you plan to remove, which will be
released into the water. Fish and other wild life may die in
significant numbers. I doubt you can cover all the bases with high
confidence in a decade of trying. EPA will want to know where you will
put the silt you remove. If you have a tight schedule and real need,
go ahead and dredge, hoping you finish the dredging before you get a
restraining order. Understand fines and lawsuit settlements could
exceed a million dollars, if it can be shown that your dredging did
significant harm. This is my opinion and reality may be quite
different.  Neil