Combining gypsum and a buffer system can improve water quality by trapping some agricultural pollutants in field runoff, a USDA scientist says.

Applying 1 ton per acre of gypsum on his fields every other year has made Jack Maloney's silt loam and silty clay loam soils more permeable to rain water, softer down through the soil profile and less prone to surface hardening. He says water does not stand in his fields like it did before he began using gypsum.