Based on the data of the Annual Census of Enterprises and relevant socio-economic information, this article empirically investigates the impacts of environmental regulation and path dependence on the distribution of water pollution industries in the Yangtze River basin. The article analyses the path dependence effect through HHI and location entropy. In the empirical model, the two-stage least squares method is used to solve the endogeneity of environmental regulation indicators, which improves the reliability of the conclusions. The results show that the concentration of water pollution industries discharging COD in the Yangtze River is relatively low and dispersed, and the concentration of this industry declines significantly year by year during the period of Eleventh Five-Year Plan. During the period of Tenth Five-Year Plan, the path-dependent effect of water pollution industries discharging COD is significant, while environmental regulation has no significant impact on their distribution. During the period of Eleventh Five-Year Plan, the path dependence no longer has significant impact, and environmental regulation significantly reduces the output and growth rate of the industry. For non-COD water pollution industries and non-water pollution industries, environmental regulation has no significant impact on them. From the perspectives of enterprise ownership types, collective enterprises, private enterprises and foreignfunded enterprises are significantly affected during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan period, while state-owned enterprises and HMT enterprises are not significantly affected. Generally speaking, with the impact of path dependence and environmental regulation on the distribution of water pollution industries shifting from one to another, and with the impact of environmental regulation on the distribution of water pollution industries increasing, continuing to improve environmental regulation polices will contribute to the sustainable development of the Yangtze River basin.