N.D. Cent. Code § 61-02-01
It is hereby declared that the general welfare and the protection of the lives, health, property, and the rights of all the people of this state require that the conservation, management, development, and control of waters in this state, public or private, navigable or non-navigable, surface or subsurface, the control of floods, and the management of the atmospheric resources, involve and necessitate the exercise of the sovereign powers of this state and are affected with and concern a public purpose. It is declared further that any and all exercise of sovereign powers of this state in investigating, constructing, maintaining, regulating, supervising, and controlling any system of works involving such subject matter embraces and concerns a single object, and that the state water commission in the exercise of its powers, and in the performance of all its official duties, shall be considered and construed to be performing a governmental function for the benefit, welfare, and prosperity of all the people of this state.
N.D.C.C. § 61-02-01