Flood Zones and the Maskenthine Dam in Stanton County, Nebraska

A dedicated Floodplain Overlay District in the county's own zoning code

Beyond the Lower Elkhorn NRD's management of Maskenthine Lake as a recreation site, Stanton County's own Zoning Regulations -- as amended June 2025 -- contain a dedicated FP Floodplain Overlay District, appearing roughly 97 pages into the current document. That overlay sits on top of whatever base zoning district (typically Agricultural) already applies to a parcel, and the county's own planning and zoning administrative forms confirm the practical consequence: an applicant is asked directly whether a property falls within a Flood Plain District, and if so, a separate Flood Plain Development Permit -- distinct from a standard building or zoning permit -- is required before construction can proceed. That is a real, checkable regulatory layer a buyer should ask about for any parcel near a watercourse or the Maskenthine Lake drainage, not just an informal caution to "check with the NRD."

The county's Planning and Zoning Administrator, Kylee Klug, handles both zoning-district questions generally and floodplain-district determinations specifically, and can be reached at (402) 439-2224 or zoning@stantoncountyne.gov. Ask her office directly whether a specific parcel falls within the FP overlay, what base flood elevation or fill restrictions apply if it does, and whether the current Flood Insurance Rate Map data Stanton County relies on has been updated recently -- none of which should be assumed from a listing or an older plat alone.

The dam's own numbers: why the lake's 100 surface acres understate its flood role

The Maskenthine Dam itself, built in 1975-76 by the Lower Elkhorn NRD, is a 53-foot-high, 1,500-foot-long earthen structure at the south end of the lake -- Nebraska's first project funded by what was then the state's Resources Development (Water Development) Fund, and the first major flood-control project completed in the Elkhorn River Basin. Its numbers explain its purpose better than its acreage does: the reservoir's permanent pool holds an estimated 927.5 acre-feet of water, but its total flood-storage capacity reaches 2,551 acre-feet -- nearly three times the normal pool -- across a drainage area of roughly 6,000 upstream acres. In practical terms, the structure is designed to temporarily hold back a volume of floodwater well beyond what the visible 100-acre lake represents day to day, which is precisely how it protects the town of Stanton 1.5 miles downstream.

Nebraska's dam-safety framework, administered by the state's Department of Water, Energy and Environment, generally classifies a dam whose failure could threaten a downstream town as "high hazard potential" -- a classification describing the consequence of failure, not its likelihood, and one that typically comes with its own emergency action plan and downstream inundation map. This research could not independently confirm Maskenthine Dam's specific current hazard classification or locate its emergency action plan or inundation map, so treat that detail as unverified rather than assumed. A buyer looking at land between the dam and the town of Stanton, or within the reservoir's flood-storage footprint upstream of the dam, should ask the Lower Elkhorn NRD directly for the dam's current hazard classification, its emergency action plan, and whether any recorded easement or inundation-area restriction affects the specific parcel.

What to verify before buying near the floodplain district or the lake

1. Ask Stanton County Planning and Zoning (Kylee Klug, (402) 439-2224, zoning@stantoncountyne.gov) whether the specific parcel falls within the FP Floodplain Overlay District, and if so, what the Flood Plain Development Permit process requires before you can build.
2. Request current FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Map data for the parcel from the county or from Nebraska's Department of Water, Energy and Environment rather than relying on an older map or a listing's flood-zone claim.
3. Ask the Lower Elkhorn NRD directly for Maskenthine Dam's current hazard classification, its emergency action plan, and any downstream inundation map, particularly for land between the dam and the town of Stanton.
4. For land upstream of the dam, ask whether the parcel lies within the reservoir's flood-storage pool (the roughly 1,600 additional acre-feet of capacity above the permanent pool) rather than assuming the 100-acre lake marks the full extent of the site's water-holding design.