Anderson may have a lot of cleaning up to do in 2008.

There are, and have been, numerous brownfield sites around the city — environmentally-challenged pieces of land. Whether it’s a former dry cleaning shop or a General Motors plant, when businesses vacate a location, they may leave behind undesirable waste.

Under former Mayor Kevin Smith’s reign, the city received two federal grants, totaling $400,000, to clean up some brownfields. There are some 125 such sites in Anderson. The city also recently applied for a $1 million federal grant for further cleaning. That $1 million could set in motion the remediation of 10 brownfields, officials have said.

If these environmental disasters are not cleaned up, that could mean less development. And that in turn could mean fewer jobs, or fewer green spaces for residents to enjoy.

Anderson hosted a brownfield conference in September and was featured at a Boston-area brownfield conference in 2006. Also this year, the city received a $750,000 grant from the Indiana Finance Authority to clean up brownfields contaminated with petroleum products.

If you drive north on Broadway past Fifth Street, there will be an open green space to your right. That was once the site of Prime Battery, which before that was a foundry.