Source: http://thedailynews.cc, October 20, 2016
By: Elisabeth Waldon
The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality is working to fix contamination from leaking storage tanks underground at a former gas station.
The property at 15350 W. Howard City-Edmore Road (M-46) sits on two long neglected acres in Winfield Township, better known as Amble.
The property went into foreclosure in 2011 due to unpaid taxes and the Montcalm County Building Department condemned the property that same year.

During Montcalm County’s no minimum bid foreclosed property auction in 2012, Jamshid Zahraie of Milan was awarded the property for a bid of $10,500. A few improvements were made the property, including boarding up the broken glass windows and mowing the tall weeds.
Jamshid Zahraie may now be serving a lengthy prison sentence.
According to the Tuscola County Advertiser, narcotics officials searched two properties owned by Jamshid Bakshi Zahraie in 2013 — a former Clark gas station, a Gran’s Party Mart and an apartment in Caro. Officials seized $114,024 in U.S. currency, $367 in both U.S. currency and Mexico silver dollars. The money was kept in white plastic grocery bags. Officials also seized a laptop computer, the contents of six bank accounts and a 2005 Ford truck.
According to the Tuscola County Prosecutor’s Office, the property searches were done after an investigation uncovered Zahraie’s manufacturing and selling of synthetic cannabinoids, which became illegal in 2012. The investigation showed the synthetic marijuana brands were largely manufactured in China and brought into the U.S. to sell at convenience stores.
A trial in 2014 resulted in guilty verdicts against Jamshid Bakshi Zahraie and his ex-wife Kirsta Beth Zahraie, both of whom were convicted of conducting criminal enterprise, possession with intent to deliver a schedule 1 controlled substance, manufacturing of a schedule 1 controlled substance, delivery of a schedule 1 controlled substance, possession of a schedule 1 controlled substance and maintaining a drug house/building.

Jamshid Bakshi Zahraie, now 64 years old, was sentenced to from 15 to 40 years in prison. His earliest release date is in 2029.
Kirsta Zahraie, 46 years old, was sentenced to from three to 20 years in prison. Her earliest release date is April 2017.
Jamshid Zahraie deeded the Amble gas station property to September Lynne Zahraie of Milan in 2014. The Daily News could not reach September Zahraie for comment about the property, or to verify whether the Jamshid Bakshi Zahraie who is in prison is the same Jamshid Zahraie who deeded the property to September Zahraie.
The process of DEQ officials being able to access the property to clean up contamination has been a long and arduous one, according to David O’Donnell, district supervisor with the remediation and redevelopment division of the DEQ in Grand Rapids.
DEQ officials were able to conduct a basic evaluation of the property in 2012 and they found evidence of contamination from underground tanks. The property had been purchased without liability protection and the property owner refused to let DEQ officials on the property.
The DEQ presented a formal notice to the property owner in February 2014 in an attempt to gain access to the property. That process took until last week with a court order for clean-up efforts to begin.
An administrative warrant from Montcalm County’s 64B District Court was posted on the door of the former gas station, stating: “The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality has established sufficient cause for issuance of this administrative warrant to take corrective action relating to leaking underground storage tanks that pose a hazard to public health, safety and welfare and the environment pursuant to (state law).”
“Those tanks were so far out of compliance,” O’Donnell said. “It’s been on our radar for years. It’s been a struggle for us to get on the property and we were concerned about the groundwater. It’s one of the most frustrating parts of our work when we know there’s something that has to be done and we can’t do it.”
O’Donnell said the tanks were drained and physically removed from the property last week. Clean-up efforts are expected to conclude this week.
“There were some contaminated soil, mostly around the old dispensers,” O’Donnell said. “We were just thrilled to be able to get out there to resolve the issue. We’re certainly going to assert a lien on the property. Perhaps it will go back onto the county’s tax roll.”
Although the contamination is not believed to be widespread, DEQ officials are still waiting on analytics from an evaluation of the former gas station property