The committee has questioned the company’s work plan, approved in September 2005, that allowed construction of tailings storage facilities at the site. The committee’s report reveals that the Kangaroo Flat Leach Residue Dam contains levels of arsenic sulphide in the order of 200 to 250 tonnes.

“Analysis of the sample indicated that iron is the major element... however, the residue also contains the heavy metal arsenic and lead,’’ the report said.

It says Bendigo Mining’s current intention is to dry out the residue in the dam and provide a clay cap.

“If the LRD were closed as Bendigo Mining proposes, by the laws of probability, it would be more likely than not that the Bendigo communiy would be exposed, within several hundred years, to toxic material by one of the following mechanisms: surface water erosion, flow of groundwater, natural disturbance or human disturbance.

“If the residue is buried in its current condition it would not be in a consolidated or hardened state and there is the potential for a sudden discharge of a substantial part of the residue if the site is disturbed.

“Some tonnes of arsenic sulphides could be lost from the site before the source of the discharge was located. The health risk from arsenic sulphides, both as a poison and carcinogenic, is well documentated.’’

Bendigo Mining Safety and Environment manager Andrew Mattiske said the levels of arsenic estimated in the report were about right and that the residue was stored in a lined dam.

Mr Mattiske said it was standard DPI practice to cover the dam with clay, and eventually with a box ironbark forest.

He said the mine and dam would not be closed for several years and work had been done to ensure it wouldn’t spill.

Mr Mattiske said an offer had also been made for the committee to come on site and inspect the dam.

A committee member who did not want to be named said if the community understood the dangers they wouldn’t stand for it.

“If in 100 years the EPA tests the Bendigo Creek and it’s full of arsenic that is traced back to Kangaroo Flat site, it would be completely unacceptable,’’ the member said.