ORANGE BEACH, Ala. -- When tourists and owners at Sugar Beach condominiums started tracking oil and tar from the sand onto a boardwalk Saturday morning, property manager Patrick McIntosh called BP PLC and asked for a cleanup crew.

He expected that help would be there in minutes, as that's what he said he was told during meetings with city officials earlier in the week.

Instead, he said he was asked if the property was public or private.

After answering private, McIntosh said, he was told that he would have to file a claim and clean the boardwalk himself. The operator asked for his e-mail address and phone number.

"It's BP's problem," he said midday Saturday. "I don't understand why they can't."

He got a slightly different response an hour or so later when he called again, he said. This time, the operator told him she was unsure whether BP would clean the boardwalk.

Just afterward, McIntosh said, he spotted about 50 to 75 workers about a mile away at a state park, and figured they were headed east toward his Orange Beach condominium. By 2 p.m., however, the workers disappeared. Heavy rains began to fall, and oil still stained the beach in front of the condominium units.

"They never got within an eighth of a mile, and there was plenty of (oil-stained) beach to the east of us," McIntosh said.

Speaking in Orange Beach on Saturday afternoon, BP PLC Senior Vice President Bob Fryar told reporters that crews responded in 45 minutes or so to oil landfall on local shores. Officials attending the press conference challenged that, however, saying some had been reported and four to six hours later still had not been cleaned up.

McIntosh said that he doesn't have the means to clean up the 50-foot boardwalk that leads from the sand to the condo.

"Obviously, if they're using hazmat people, I should do the same, and I'm not going to take the risk of a lawsuit and use my janitorial service," McIntosh said. "I didn't want to file a claim. All I wanted them to do is clean that little area."

McIntosh said he planned to call BP again today.

"As soon as the city opens up Monday, I'm going to City Hall, asking them if they can help me," McIntosh said. "At this point, I'm not worried as much about the deck as I am the beach."

(Staff Reporter Connie Baggett contributed to this report.)



