COPLEY TWP.: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency intends to put dirt over contamination at an old Summit County landfill.

The $2.9 million project, expected to get under way this fall, would keep the long-closed Bessie Williams Landfill from being a threat to human health or the environment, EPA said in a 28-page document dated May 23 and just publicly released.

The remedy announced in the confirmation action memorandum is what the agency had proposed in February to deal with low levels of lead and certain volatile organic compounds from industrial solvents at the site.

About 18.6 acres at the old landfill would be covered with one foot of clean soil and a separate five-acre tract with higher levels of lead would get 2 feet of soil under the EPA plan.

The more-contaminated area lies north of the 18.6 acres.

Both contaminated areas are part of a largely undeveloped 107-acre site.

In addition to the soil cap, restrictions on the future use of the land and a prohibition on using the ground water for drinking will be added to the deed for the property at 2020 Knox Blvd.

There also will be monthly inspections of the site.

The EPA said the soil cover will keep the lead and volatile organic compounds from exposing people to risk.

The triangular-shaped site, at the west end of Knox Boulevard and close to Copley Creek near the Copley-Norton border, was an illegal landfill from the 1940s to 1993. It was owned and operated by the late Robert and Bessie Williams.

In 1993 and 1994, more than 1,600 drums of hazardous chemicals were removed from the site, along with 4,800 pounds of medical wastes, 165 cubic yards of solid polystyrene or plastic foam and two fuel tanks.

The drums both had been buried and on the surface at the landfill.

Designing the final remedy and hiring a contractor likely will take about 12 months, the EPA said.

The EPA said capping the site will cost $2.9 million and excavating and hauling the contaminated soil away would have cost in excess of $17.8 million.

There is no evidence of contamination from the site — limited to the top 5 feet of soil — reaching Copley Creek or affecting 44 nearby residential drinking-water wells, the agency said.

According to the EPA report, the landfill contamination ''has had no significant impact on human health or the environment.''

The cleanup will likely be paid for by Novacor Chemicals Inc. (a Canadian firm that purchased the former Polysar Inc.) and Millennium Holdings LLC, two companies being held liable by the EPA.

The companies have been cooperating with the EPA, officials said, and negotiations on the final cleanup will begin soon.

The property is now owned by Russell Dezelan, who purchased the land at a sheriff's sale in 2002.

Copies of the new EPA report and other materials are available at the Copley Township Trustees Office, 1540 S. Cleveland-Massillon Road, Copley, and the Norton Branch Library, 3930 S. Cleveland-Massillon Road, Norton. It also is available at http://www.epa.gov/region5/sites/bessiewilliams.