he village of Miami Shores is hard at work finalizing a $3 million infrastructure project that will enable the neighborhood of Shores Estates to finally connect to a sewer system.
However, some Shores Estates residents question whether the disruption to their daily lives was worth it. And there is some grumbling that the venture may have hurt their neighborhood more than helped it. At least so far.
Village Manager Esmond Scott said the Shores Estates sewer project, which launched in June 2025, is merely the first step toward moving the town away from septic tanks. And while the construction project did cause some disruptions, Scott insisted Shores Estates homeowners will be much better off once the new septic system is completed.
Neighbors say when contractors started digging up streets and installing sewage lines, Shores Estates residents were subjected to dust clouds, loud noises, and closed intersections.
“This village has done an awesome job in terms of delivering the first residential septic-to-sewer conversion in its history,” Scott told the Biscayne Times, “But with any change, there are going to be hiccups.”
But Robert Menge, a Shores Estates resident for the past 24 years, said the town should have focused on installing an improved storm water system before trying to tackle a septic system. He added that the existing infrastructure isn’t properly maintained, as evidenced by a water main break in early July.
“The water system is falling apart, and they need to fix it,” said Menge, a retired 40-year veteran of the county’s Department of Environmental Resources Management [DERM].
The Hazards of Septic Tanks
(Credit: Kimley Horn, Village of Miami Shores)
Septic-to-sewer project map of Shores Estates.
Stormwater drains have clogged since the start of the septic-to-sewer project.
Shores Estates, also known as Miami Shores Estates, is an affluent community of 99 homes and two vacant parcels located roughly between the Miami Shores Country Club, NE 107th and 108th streets, a Ross Dress for Less-anchored shopping plaza, Biscayne Boulevard, and the Biscayne Canal No. C-8.
And like most of Miami Shores, Shores Estates’ homes are serviced by septic tanks, which are large underground containers that collect anything that is flushed down the toilet or flows down a drain from whatever domicile they happen to be connected to.
When septic tanks work properly, heavier solid matter sinks to the bottom while liquid sewage (effluent) seeps underground where it is eaten by bacteria. But over time these tanks still need to be pumped out, otherwise toilets and sinks back up.
Because they leak human fecal matter into the ground, septic tanks can become environmental hazards to waterways. They also don’t work very well in low-lying areas that tend to flood.
(Photo by Erik Bojnansky)
Village Manager Esmond Scott said he’s proud of Miami Shores’ first ever septic-to-sewer project at Shores Estates.
The situation will only grow worse as time goes on and climate change accelerates the rise in sea levels.
A November 2018 Miami-Dade County report estimated that out of the estimated 105,000 septic tanks located on residential properties countywide, 58,000 are “periodically compromised.” By 2040, that figure will rise to at least 67,000.
According to Miami Shores’ 2022 strategic plan report, the 3.5 square mile village is especially vulnerable to flooding events since it is a low-lying coastal municipality where more than 90% of its properties are still hooked up to septic tanks. After securing grant funding, the village decided to start its septic-to-sewer conversion program with Shores Estates due to its tendency to flood.
Unrealized Disruption
(Photo by Erik Bojnansky)
Site of the former Miami Shores Motel at 10500 Biscayne Boulevard where contractors affiliated with Basille USA are building a septic tank pump for the Shores Estates neighborhood.
When contractors started digging up streets and installing sewage lines, Shores Estates residents were subjected to dust clouds, loud noises, and closed intersections that prevented the delivery of mail and packages for nearly a year.
Jeff Winograd, a Shores Estates resident for the past 30 years, said he knows one neighbor who he claims got chronic obstructive pulmonary disease from all the dust in the air, while another Shores Estates resident broke her hip when she tripped on the street while putting lawn trimmings on the curb.
“I don’t think any of us really realized the disruption involved. Even the powers that be, the director of public works and the project manager, it was kind of a learning curve as we went along,” said Jane Goodman, a former Biscayne Times contributor who has lived in Shores Estates for the past 26 years.
(Photo provided by Jeff Winograd)
Water erupts from a broken pipe during repair work in July.
Winograd said that while construction was substantially finished in June 2026 (aside from inspections and the installation of a septic pump station where the Miami Shores Hotel once stood), things are still not the same at Shores Estates. He complained that his neighborhood’s once smoothly paved streets remain uneven, bumpy and cracked.
“You need a four-wheel drive to come through here,” Winograd said.
Vegetation placed at street ends to deter strangers from wandering the neighborhood has yet to be replaced, Winograd added, while discarded construction signs can still be found lying on the grass.
Village Manager Scott replied that staff respond to complaints quickly. As for the patchy streets, missing vegetation, and other matters related to the project, those problems will be fixed as the town goes through its checklist, he added.
Scott also said that the village opted to tackle the installation of a sewer line first because the funding and certification was secured while Miami Shores’ stormwater drainage plans have yet to be approved by the county and state.
(Photo by Erik Bojnansky)
Robert Menge, Jane Goodman, and Jeffrey Winograd have lived in Shores Estates for decades.
Still, the project wasn’t aimed at preventing future floods at Shores Estates. That will be done sometime in the future, once the stormwater plan for the neighborhood is certified and funded, Scott said.
Floods Unabated
Former DERM employee Menge contends that flooding may have gotten worse due to the neighborhood’s current stormwater drainage system being damaged by heavy equipment used during the project. He also insisted that Shores Estates’ stormwater system is frequently clogged due to lack of maintenance and one of the neighborhood’s 18 drains being welded shut.
Scott replied that there is no evidence of any infrastructure damage caused by the sewer project construction, adding that the water main breakage was likely due to aging infrastructure installed between the 1920s and 1970s that is overseen by the city of North Miami, which provides water to Miami Shores.
(Photo by Erik Bojnansky)
NE 105th Street in Shores Estates remains uneven and cracked following the installation of underground sewer pipes.
In an email to the Biscayne Times, Scott also insisted that while one grate was found to be “fastened from rust and difficult to open” the other drain basins are “cleaned on a scheduled basis and reported to the state for compliance purposes as part of mandatory NPDES [National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System] reporting.”
Water may not be flowing down stormwater drain basins as fast as they used to because they have been equipped with filters designed to keep out pollution, added Public Works Director Delroy Peters.
“This filter fabric, whilst it prevents silt from going in, also slows the rate at which water can go through,” Peters said. “So, if there’s a flood event and there are filter fabrics, that means that the water may pond longer.”
Although the sewage system has yet to be activated, Shores Estates residents are already being assessed an annual charge of $1,163 per home for the construction of the new sewer lines. Yet homeowners won’t be hit with a connection charge, confirmed North Miami Assistant City Manager Katia M. Philippeaux. That’s because Miami Shores staffers were able to use $1 million left over from the project to offset those costs, Village Manager Scott explained.
(Photo by Erik Bojnansky)
Jeff Winograd simulates tripping over a crack on NE 105th Street in Shores Estates.
Public works director Delroy Peters said the Shores Estates project should be completed by December 2026. “And then, once we close it out, then by next year we start talking about the connection,” he added.
Future Project on the Horizon
Scott said that Shores Estates residents shouldn’t be too hung up on past inconveniences. Instead, they should remember that this is the first septic-to-sewer project launched in a Miami Shores residential area in its 90-plus year history. And when it’s up and running, Scott added, Shores Estates homeowners will no longer have to contend with toilet backups caused by a compromised septic tank that routinely leaks fecal matter into their yards.
“Wastewater, rather than being retained in a container on your personal property, is now moved from your commodes into a pipe that goes into a main transmission line and takes it away,” he said.
And Miami Shores isn’t done yet. Scott said the village is already planning its next septic-to-sewer project, which will cover 240 homes in southeastern Miami Shores.