Va. Code § 62.1-116
A person having upon lands owned by him on a watercourse, or proposing to build on such lands, a water mill, or other machine, manufactory, or engine, useful to the public, and desiring leave to erect a dam across, or in such watercourse (whether he own the lands on either side of the watercourse at the point where such dam is to be erected or not), or to cut or enlarge a canal through lands above or below, or to raise a dam which may have been erected under an order of court, or the owner of any such water mill, machine, manufactory, or engine, located on a watercourse, having the right to the use of such watercourse for the operation of his mill, machine, manufactory, or engine, and desiring leave to construct a work on or through the lands of another for the purpose of confining the watercourse within its customary channel or restoring it thereto where it has been diverted therefrom not more than three years by floods or other natural causes, may apply for such leave to the circuit court of the county wherein such mill, machine, manufactory, or engine stands, or is proposed to be built.
Va. Code § 62.1-116