Grctna, Louisiana
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Chemical Soup Has a Spicy Ending
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Region 6 Brownfields Program
After a 20-year odyssey navigating through Federal and State environmental regulations, per-
sistently pursuing needed resources and assistance, the City of Gretna successfully cleaned up and
sold the Malter International property.
The former Malter International site is seven acres of previously developed land located in
Gretna (population 18,500), Jefferson Parish, Louisiana. The site was previously occupied by the Mal-
ter International facility, which was involved in a wide range of production, packaging, and shipping op-
erations of various household and industrial chemical compounds, including but not limited to pesti-
cides, herbicides, and cleaning solvents. Malter International reincorporated under new ownership as
New Malter, Inc. in 1987. Operations were subsequently shut down and the facility was abandoned in
1989. Its prime location near the Mississippi River should have made this property attractive for rede-
velopment, but its history of contamination precluded any interest.
The US EPA completed CERCLA removal actions (cost of removal actions $1.8 million) during
1991 through1994 in response to complaints about chemical smells coming from the Malter property.
After fires, vandalism and longtime neglect, the City of Gretna took on the gargantuan task of working
through environmental regulatory and voluntary programs to assess and cleanup the site.
The City of Gretna competed and won a $200,000 US EPA Brownfields Assessment Pilot grant
in 1997 that enabled the City to assess the Malter property in addition to completing a brownfields in-
ventory and environmental site assessments on other brownfields properties within its city limits.
The City used a $500,000 loan from its Brownfields Cleanup Revolving Loan Fund grant
awarded by the US EPA to pay for cleanup of the former Malter International site. Cleanup activities
included air sparge, groundwater extraction, steam-activated persulfate oxidation, soil excavation, and
confirmatory sampling of both soil and groundwater. The contaminants addressed on the Malter prop-
erty included methethylene chloride, chlorinated volatile organic compounds, pesticides - aldrin and
dieldrin - and xylene.
The City was able to take advantage of expedited adjudication (foreclosure) of the property for
back property taxes owed in 2006. After receiving a Certificate of Completion in September 2008 un-
der the Louisiana Voluntary Remediation Program from the Louisiana Department of Environmental
Quality, the City sold the Malter property to Zatarain's, a manufacturer of authentic New Orleans-style
food products and subsidiary of McCormick & Company Inc., for $660,000 in September 2009.
For more information on the City of Gretna's Brownfields Program, contact Mayor Ronnie
Harris, email: mayor1@gretnala.com, or phone: (504) 363-1505.
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