On a sun-battered stretch of the Miami River canal wedged between U.S. 27, the old cross-state truck route, and an industrial area of Medley, the water looks brown, murky and inhospitable.
For Ali Ebrahimian, a Florida International University engineer specializing in water resources, the location is perfect.
“Basically, these are our rivers,” Ebrahimian said one morning in February while two research students connected a pump in the bed of their pickup to suck up water from the canal. ”We’re trying to see what is being discharged into this water, and then what happens. All these pollutants have a journey.”…