BRIMBANK Council actively promoted a Sunshine reserve as a dog walking park while it was contaminated with high levels of lead, copper and other metals, a Sunshine resident has claimed.

But the council has refuted the allegations, insisting contaminated portions of the site were never open to the public.

Sunshine resident Larissa Stewart has spent more than a year investigating the history of Nancy/Whitesides Reserve in Sunshine West after noticing remediation works at the usually quiet park in September 2007.

Further investigation revealed the site was once a dumping ground used by the former ICI Chemical Factory, now Orica, to dispose of unwanted materials including lead and other metals.

A 1999 report commissioned on the site found traces of lead, copper and arsenic and concluded that “significant contamination...has been found extending from the North East corner of the site.”

Testing conducted by Orica in 2006 also confirmed the site contained high levels of contaminants, which led to its remediation commencing in 2007.

Ms Stewart claims the council, who purchased the land from Orica in 1986, opened the site for public use and promoted it as a dog walking zone. She said she was furious the council failed to properly sign the site, warning residents of its potential dangers.

But Doris Cunningham, the council's General Manager of Corporate Services said the council had been unaware of contamination concerns when it bought the site but admitted it was aware there could be potential contamination.

She insisted the contaminated portion of land, located to the North East of the site, was never open for public use.