Farmers Freedom Act Excludes Pre-1985 Cropland from Federal Water Protection, Raising Downstream Concerns

The newly proposed Farmers Freedom Act of 2025 takes a serious swing at how the federal government defines what counts as a protected waterway under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (the Clean Water Act). If you live downstream, or just care about clean water, this one is worth paying attention to.

The Fine Print: What’s Not a Waterway Anymore?

This bill’s core action is simple: it carves out a massive exception to the definition of “navigable waters.” Specifically, it says that the term excludes any land classified as “prior converted cropland.” What does that mean in plain English? It’s land that was drained or manipulated for farming before December 23, 1985. The catch is that this exclusion is now permanent, even if that land has since turned back into a wetland—a natural water filter and flood buffer.

Think of it this way: if a farmer drained a swamp in 1980 to plant corn, and that land has been sitting idle for 10 years, slowly turning back into a marshy area that cleans water and holds flood runoff, this bill says that land is still exempt from federal pollution rules. The only way it loses the exemption is if it’s been “abandoned” (not used for agriculture for five straight years), and even the definition of “agricultural purpose” here is super broad—it includes things like grazing, haying, and even just idling the land for “conservation” or “water storage.” This makes it very easy for landowners to keep the exclusion in place.

The Real-World Impact: Who Pays the Price?

For farmers and landowners, the benefit is clear: less red tape and fewer federal rules about what they can do on these specific pieces of property. They get more flexibility and certainty, which is a good thing for managing a complex business. The bill also specifically blocks the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers from using certain existing regulatory definitions that might have offered more environmental protection for this type of land, essentially cementing this hands-off approach.

However, for the general public and communities downstream, this is where the concern kicks in. Wetlands are nature’s kidneys; they filter pollutants and absorb massive amounts of water during storms. By removing federal oversight from potentially millions of acres of these re-emerging wetlands, the bill increases the risk that runoff from these lands—containing fertilizers, pesticides, or other pollutants—will flow unchecked into rivers and drinking water sources. If you live in a city or town that gets its water from a river, the quality of that water could be directly affected by what happens on these newly exempted lands miles away. It shifts the burden of cleaning up polluted water from the landowner to the local water treatment plant (and ultimately, the taxpayer).

In short, the Farmers Freedom Act provides substantial regulatory relief for agricultural land owners by permanently exempting historical cropland from federal water protections. While this cuts down on farming compliance costs, it places a significant new risk on the environment and the public water supply, potentially sacrificing natural flood control and water purification for regulatory ease.