Patchwork Water Pollution Rule Takes Effect After Supreme Court Ruling

Most of the country will be subject to an Obama-era regulation defining the reach of the nation’s water pollution law, but the regulation still faces a bevy of legal challenges across the country in a process that promises to be “chaos.”

“You can have more than 50 district courts looking at this rule, and you can end up with as many different opinions as there are courts,” Georgetown Law Professor Hope Babcock told Bloomberg Environment, calling the process “chaotic.”

The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held Jan. 22 that litigation over the 2015 Clean Water Rule will be heard ...