The commissioners appointed by the board of county commissioners to examine and lay off the rivers and creeks within the county, or where the stream is a boundary between counties, shall have power to lay off gates, with slopes attached thereto, upon any milldam built across such stream, of such dimensions and construction as shall be sufficient for the convenient passage of floating logs and other timber, in cases where it may be deemed necessary by the said board of county commissioners; and they shall return to the board of county commissioners appointing them a plan of such gates, slopes, and dams in writing.
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 77-4