N.C. Gen. Stat. § 156-3
The commissioners, or a majority of them, on a day of which each proprietor of land aforesaid is to be notified at least five days, shall meet on the premises and view the lands to be drained or embanked, and the lands through or on which the drain is to pass or the embankment to be erected, and shall determine and report whether the lands of the petitioner can be conveniently drained or embanked except through or on the lands of the defendants or some of them; and if they are of opinion that the same cannot be conveniently done except through or on such lands, they shall decide and determine the route of the canal, ditch, or embankment, the width thereof, and the depth or height, as the case may be, and the manner in which the same shall be cut or thrown up, considering all the circumstances of the case, and providing as far as possible for the effectual drainage or embankment of the water from the petitioner's land, and also securing the defendant's lands from inundation, and every other injury to which the same may be probably subjected by such canal, ditch, or embankment; and they shall assess, for each of the defendants, such damage as in their judgment will fully indemnify him for the use of his land in the mode proposed; but in assessing such damages, benefits shall be deducted.
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 156-3