DAYTON, Ohio — Safe drinking water is always a hot topic in the state of Ohio.

Thanks to a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, Central State University is creating a Midwest Climate Resilience Center near Dayton.

The institution is the only public Historically Black College and University (HBCU) in the state.

The center will focus on extreme rain and flooding and the possible impact on drinking water quality.

“What I’m working on right now is writing down soil samples,” said student Royalty Hightower as she worked on her current project.

Hightower is majoring in sustainable agriculture.

“A lot of people take soils and things for granted, and it’s kind of interesting to me to see how much of an impact things that we take for granted every day like soils have on our every day life,” she said.

Hightower is just one of the students hard at work in the Agricultural and Natural Resources Information and Management Lab.

The lab is headed up by Professor Sakthi Kumaran. 

“Right now we are working on creating a more accurate system for classifying cover crops,” student Bryant Willis said.

“What I’m working on here is filtering water samples to get all the containments out,” student Kellsie Schrack said.

Central State is partnering with Ohio State University and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to establish the Midwest Climate Resilience Center or MCRC.

They’re pulling water and soil samples from four surrounding counties and setting up observational sites.

“So we’re looking at the water flowing through the rural watersheds and into urban watershed and what impact they have on drinking water quality,” Kumaran said.

They’re also looking at the impact of climate stressors on soil system processes, including carbon and nitrogen cycling in watersheds.  

“Our goal is actually to model the transport of nitrate within the soil system at a fine scale then scale it up to more regional and national scales,” Kumaran said.

“It makes me very proud to be part of something larger than myself,” Willis said.

The group will develop climate solutions for local communities and train the next generation of scientists from underrepresented student communities.

“I don’t think that a lot of students that are at HBCUs know how much is out there for them, opportunity-wise, within the agriculture field,” Hightower said.

“The majority of our students are from minority populations, and our goal is to train them in these disciplines, and I use this lab, my lab, as a vehicle,” Kumaran said.

That vehicle is about to get a lot bigger.

Across the street, the university is building a massive research facility that will house many future labs, research projects and the MCRC. 

“I’ve been building this lab up for quite some time now, and I’m really excited to know that we will have a new lab in the very near future to expand the operations that we have going on here,” Kumaran said.

Not only will the group be able to test a lot more samples, but more hands on opportunities and internships will be available for students at Central State.

“It makes me pretty happy to see more people getting into the field,” Hightower said.

Thanks to projects like this, she feels confident for the future.

“Them giving the extra help to specifically HBCUs is really important in getting like people like me involved into this field," she said. "I think it’s amazing actually."

The Midwest Center is one of 10 innovative climate resilience centers in 10 different states to be funded through Department of Energy grants.

Each will be funded for three years but have the potential to expand longer.

The new facility being built at Central State is expected to be finished within three years.