Book excerpt: Fon-du-lac Subdivision Dam was inspected by an interdisciplinary team of engineers. The purpose of the inspection was to make an assessment of the general condition of the dam with respect to safety, based upon available data and visual inspection, in order to determine if the dam poses hazards to human life or property. Failure would threaten the life and property of ten families and cause appreciable damage to two county roads. Our inspection and evaluation indicates the dam is deficient in that the spillway is inadequate. The guidelines for a dam having the above size and hazard potential require that the spillway be capable of passing a one-half PMF (Probable Maximum Flood). The Probable Maximum Flood is defined as the flood discharge that may be expected from the most severe combination of critical meteorologic and hydrologic conditions reasonably possible in the region. Considering the small volume of water impounded, the large floodplain downstream and the three groups of farm buildings downstream, one-half PMF is the appropriate spillway design flood. A 20% PMF will begin to overtop the dam. The lake and spillway are adequate to contain a 1% annual probability flood (100-year flood) without overtopping the dam.