By GRANT SMITH
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources last stocked Silver Creek in Fond du Lac County with brown trout in 2006 but hasn’t fully inspected the Gothic Millpond that holds back its waters in nearly two decades.
The millpond is a landmark in downtown Ripon, located upstream from a row of houses, a few businesses and the city library — about 60 properties in all.
The millpond is among 32 potentially hazardous dams in Wisconsin that state engineers have not fully inspected in the past 10 years. About 19 percent of the state's dams have not been inspected within that time frame.
State law requires dam inspections every 10 years to help ensure dams won't fail during the type of flooding that Wisconsin experienced earlier this summer. In June, floodwaters washed out an embankment at Wyocena Dam in Columbia County. That low-hazard dam hadn't been inspected in more than 14 years.
A Journal Sentinel investigation last August found that the state had not inspected at least 230 dams — one-quarter of all state-regulated dams — since before August 1997. That list included 67 dams rated high- or significant- hazard. Since then, the state has picked up its pace, reducing its inspection backlog for structures that could cause the greatest danger to life and property in the event of a failure.
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