BP says it's finished with coastal Ala. cleanup

GULF SHORES, Ala. – Petroleum giant BP says it has finished with the bulk of its oil spill cleanup work on Alabama's coast.

BP PLC said Friday it has removed workers and machinery from its deep-cleaning operation on the state's tourist beaches.

The company says it will continue monitoring beach conditions with workers who are patrolling the coastline. And it says locally based teams will remove any tar balls that continue washing in from the Gulf of Mexico.

But the company says it's done with a portion of the work that saw huge sand-sifting machines moving east and west along beaches as they dug down to remove buried oil. Coastal leaders had pressed the company to complete the work before the start of tourist season.