U.S. top court to mull where challenges to clean water rule can be heard

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to resolve a dispute over what court should handle challenges to a 2015 Obama administration regulation that defines waterways protected under a federal anti-pollution law.     The justices said they would hear an appeal by the National Association of Manufacturers of a Cincinnati-based federal appeals court's ruling that gave itself jurisdiction to review challenges to the Clean Water Act regulation. The industry group wants challenges to the rule to be heard in district courts.     What constitutes protected waters is hugely important to landowners, industry and environmental groups, as well as government officials.     The legal dispute relates to a provision of the Clean Water Act that funnels reviews of certain types of government actions directly to courts of appeals, and others to federal district courts.     Dozens of agricultural groups, states and municipalities had sued U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which adopted the new definition, in district courts.