Source: http://www.downtownpublications.com, December 4, 2015
By: Lisa Brody
The Shell gas station at Maple and Lahser roads in Bloomfield Township, which received approvals to renovate as a mini-mart from the township board of trustees on November 23, was suddenly shut down this week when the current lessee of the station, Safeway, decided not to continue its lease, prompting immediate remediation of its underground storage tanks which have been on a state leaking storage tank list since 1989.
Kim Ethridge,with the Remediation and Redevelopment Division of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), said the station’s closing “was quite a surprise, to us included. We are not aware of why the plans changed.”
However, she said, “It’s state law to remove the tanks if they’re not being used.”
Scott Barbat, who recently purchased the station, was not aware of the impending closure, according to Bloomfield Township planner Patti Voelker. Barbat, she said, had not yet taken possession of the station. Barbat also owns the BP station/Tim Horton’s at Maple and Telegraph, as well a new Shell/Dunkin Donuts station on Woodward in Birmingham.
“There was an operator in there, a Shell dealer who had a lease, and the landlord decided to lease to another operator,” said Barbat. He said he takes possession of the property January 1, 2016.
A resident noted that the station was closed on Tuesday, December 1, and the underground storage tanks were emptied out, with a large excavator on site removing the tanks.
The site is number 2266 on the state’s Leaking Underground Storage Tank list. Ethridge said its first release was in 1989. It can take one to 20 years, or more, for a release to migrate when there is groundwater, she said. In this case, there was groundwater.
“Since 1989, we’ve been working on monitoring the release, and now as the property was changing hands, it was a good time to arrive at closure,” she said of Safeway. “No one wants them to go on forever. This week, as the tanks were coming out, we wanted to make sure there wasn’t a new release, which we didn’t see.”
She said a major consideration in removal and remediation is seepage into groundwater, especially when there are wells in the area. “Surprisingly, there are quite a handful in the area that are on wells and not municipal water, such as Oakland Hills Country Club, which uses wells for irrigations,” Ethridge said. “One of the first things we see, is if they’re on wells, if they’re drinking the water, or if they’re using it to water their gardens. My first priority is protecting human health.”
“About 20 years ago, Shell Oil owned their stations and tanks, and around 2000 they decided they didn’t want to own their stations in Michigan anymore, and they divested them to the Safeway Michigan Corporation,” Ethridge said. “This one, along with hundreds of others, is one I manage to make sure it is remediated and closed out, to make sure the release is capped.”
She said Shell Oil is the liable party for the remediation because the release was prior to 2000. “Shell Oil has a wonderful consulting crew.”
Barbat said he absolutely intends to put in new gas tanks underground and new pumps, and will do a complete renovation of the station into a mini-mart, beginning in January, with an anticipated re-opening in March.
“It will have full closure on the site and it will be clean,” Barbat emphasized. “All of the contamination will be removed before we backfill” and put in new tanks and pumps.
He said it will remain a Shell gas station.