
"Waste" Gypsum Could Help Boost
Crop YieldsBy Don Comis May 27, 1999Instead of going to a landfill, gypsum
from electric power plant smokestacks can be sold to farmers to raise corn and
soybean yields while protecting soil from erosion. The tactic is still in the
research stage, but its being applied on hundreds of thousands of acres
in Indiana and Illinois, according to soil scientist Darrell Norton at the
Agricultural Research Service,
USDA's chief scientific agency. Norton is scheduled to present his research findings today at the
10th International
Soil Conservation Organization Conference, held May 23-28 in West
Lafayette, Ind. The conference theme is Sustaining the Global Farm: Local
Action for Land Stewardship. Norton has shown that gypsum waste from power plants helps soil
hold more water, by preventing soil from crusting so more rainwater enters the
soil instead of running off the field. In the past, gypsum from quarries has
been used to loosen soil, to treat soils high in sodium or toxic aluminum, and
to fertilize soils deficient in calcium or sulfur, according to Norton. Norton leads ARS' National
Soil Erosion Research Laboratory in West Lafayette. The laboratory is
co-hosting the conference along with Purdue
University and USDAs Natural
Resources Conservation Service. Ralph Woodward, a corn and soybean farmer who works with Norton, farms in an
area where most soils are low in calcium and sulfur. The discovery of soil and
water benefits from gypsum from power plants is icing on the cake. Woodward
believes these benefits will increase over time and show significant yield
increases. He believes so strongly in the potential economic and environmental
benefits of power plant gypsum that he has a Purdue graduate student doing
gypsum research on his farm, in cooperation with Norton and the Indianapolis
Power and Light Company. Ken Curtis, of Prairie City, Illinois, another farmer who works with Norton,
also runs a business applying power plant gypsum on other farmers fields.
Trucks that used to return from the grain elevator empty now return full of
gypsum. Since the Clean Air Act of 1990 and subsequent revisions, scrubbers added to
power plant smokestacks are generating increasing amounts of gypsum. Scientific contact: Darrell Norton, ARS
National Soil Erosion Research Laboratory, West Lafayette, Ind., phone (765)
494-8673, fax (765) 494-5948, [email protected]. Story contacts National Soil Erosion Research U.S. Department of Agriculture | |