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Consultants and builders working near California streams

Where is the stream or lake?

Check if your California project needs a CDFW Lake or Streambed Alteration notification, see the 2026 fee, and draft it. Free to read.

  • Free to read
  • No sign-up until the draft
  • Every fact cites its source
WETLAND · 0.6 AC (NWI) CROSSING · 24 IN CULVERT HUC-12 180201250701

ePlan fills in

  • Streams and lakes
  • Wetlands
  • Special-status species
  • Parcel
  • Aerial photo

How it works

Lake or Streambed Alteration notification and fee worksheet, from one answer

  1. Mark the stream and say what the work will do.One answer starts the project. ePlan names it and looks up the place.
  2. ePlan maps the water, habitat and species and works out the fee.3 more questions, each with a "not sure yet" way out.
  3. Read the notification free, then download it to file in EPIMS.The draft marks what to check (amber), what to pick (blue) and what to fill in (violet).

What you get

Lake or Streambed Alteration notification and fee worksheet and 3 more documents

The first draft is free to read. Each document after it is drafted from the same confirmed facts.

The first draft

Lake or Streambed Alteration notification and fee worksheet

  1. Applicant and property
  2. Project description and schedule
  3. Stream or lake affected
  4. Work in the bed, bank or channel
  5. Fish and wildlife resources
  6. Avoidance and minimization measures

Modeled on: CDFW Lake or Streambed Alteration notification (EPIMS online portal)

Next · 2

Corps nationwide permit notice

  1. Activity and nationwide permit
  2. Waters affected
  3. Avoidance and mitigation
Next · 3

401 water quality certification

  1. Project and discharge
  2. Water quality protection
  3. Mitigation
Next · 4

CEQA exemption

  1. Project description
  2. Exemption class
  3. Exceptions check

From public data

What ePlan fills in, and from where

$25,000

per violation is the maximum civil penalty for breaking California's lake and streambed alteration law
Source: Cal. Fish and Game Code 1615(a)

Questions

1602 Permit: what people ask

When do I need to notify CDFW?

Before you divert or obstruct a river, stream or lake, change its bed, channel or bank, use material from it, or deposit material into it. That includes waters that are dry for part of the year.

Source: wildlife.ca.gov

How much is the fee?

In 2026 a standard agreement of up to 5 years costs $770.75 for projects under $5,000, rising with project cost to $6,867.25 for projects of $350,000 or more.

Source: nrm.dfg.ca.gov

What if CDFW doesn't respond?

CDFW decides completeness within 30 calendar days. If it doesn't provide a draft agreement within 60 days after the notification is complete, you may proceed with the project as described without an agreement.

Source: wildlife.ca.gov

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1602 Permit: start with one answer

Answer it and the project exists. Three more questions, then the draft.