Tenn. Code § 69-5-103
Before any county court establishes a drainage or levee district, or any levee, ditch, drain, or watercourse improvement, as provided for in this chapter, a petition, signed as prescribed in § 69-5-104, shall be filed in the office of the county clerk of the county in which the improvement is expected to be made, setting forth that any body or district of land in such county, described by metes and bounds or otherwise, so as to convey an intelligible description of such lands, is subject to overflow, or too wet for profitable cultivation, and that the public health or welfare will be promoted by draining, ditching, or leveeing it, or by changing a natural watercourse, or by in part changing such watercourse by cutting across its bends and shortening its length, or by cleaning out its natural bed or deepening or enlarging such bed, or by giving such watercourse a new outlet, or any or all of these and similar things pertaining to the proposed improvement, and setting forth in the petition as near as may be the starting point, route, and terminus, and lateral branches, if with proper prayer for purpose desired; and there shall be filed with the petition a bond, with good security, in such penal sum as the clerk may deem adequate, to be approved by the clerk, and conditioned for the payment of all preliminary expenses until refunded, and of all costs and expenses incurred in the proceedings in case the county court does not grant the prayer of the petition, or the petition is dismissed for any cause. The county court may at any time deemed proper order the bond increased in penalty or in sufficiency, and make all necessary orders to this end.
T.C.A. § 69-5-103