British Petroleum Is Accused of Dragging Its Feet : Oil spill: The state’s top environmental enforcement officer at the cleanup site says the company often claimed to have performed work that it had not. A BP spokeswoman denies the allegations.

The state’s top environmental enforcement officer for the Huntington Beach oil spill Wednesday accused British Petroleum of constant foot-dragging and of frequently claiming that it had performed oil spill cleanup work on Orange County’s shoreline when it had not.

Since Feb. 7, when the tanker American Trader spilled 394,000 gallons of crude, “it’s been difficult to get specific commitments out of British Petroleum,” said Reed Smith, a patrol lieutenant for the state Department of Fish and Game and California’s on-scene coordinator for the spill cleanup.

“There were things that they said they would do but just weren’t done,” Smith said.

BP spokeswoman Marcia Meermans strongly denied Smith’s allegations. The oil company, which owned the crude and has spent $12 million cleaning it up, “has been committed to assisting with the spill cleanup since Day One and we’re committed to remain here till the job is done,” she said.

Smith’s comments come a day after the commandant of the Coast Guard praised BP for being a “good corporate citizen” in helping clean up the spill in textbook fashion.

But Smith cited examples to the contrary. Chief among these, he said, was that nine days after the spill--when beaches were still covered with oil--BP indicated that it would begin to pare down its cleanup crews. Two days later, however, the oil company pulled out all 900 workers, Smith said, and sent its primary cleanup manager home to Louisiana.

The following Monday “was an ideal day for cleanup but no work was going on,” Smith said. “They maintained they’d do what was needed to do. In fact, they’d stopped working.”

Smith said that after he and other officials complained, BP returned about 400 workers to the shore. Still, he said, the temporary shutdown resulted in additional damage to marine life.

Meermans said that crews have been on the beach daily since the spill and that cleanup manager Jim O’Brien had intended all along to return from Louisiana after a brief visit.

“All our actions have always been reviewed and approved” by the oil spill command group that includes Smith, she said.

According to Smith, BP’s failure to follow through began about three days after the spill when executives pledged to put protective booms at the the entrance of Upper Newport Bay, a wildlife refuge.

“We believed it to be done and they said, ‘We’ll do it tomorrow.’ And then it never was,” he said.

In another instance, state officials on Feb. 15 asked BP to wash oil-covered rocks along the Santa Ana River with warm water. “The oil removal there got started a lot later than we asked for it, perhaps Friday, Feb. 23,” Smith said.

Meermans countered that operations were “slowed somewhat” by foul weather; then the company had to demonstrate its rock cleaning plan to the Coast Guard on Feb. 21, fly in equipment from Alaska and train crews.

Also, Smith said, 10 days ago, when sand and rocks from Newport Beach north to Bolsa Chica State Beach were still covered with oil, BP executives suggested that the company was ready to end its cleanup. According to Smith, one executive said, “ ‘We’ll leave paper towels and cleaning compounds at the lifeguard stations.’ ”

Meermans acknowledged that BP executives made the statement but said they meant that workers would withdraw “only after the beaches are approved and reopened” by authorities.

Coast Guard officials did not return calls for comment Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Adm. Paul A. Yost said the government made a “goof” by failing to require depth soundings at the offshore mooring where the oil tanker’s hull was punctured when it ran over its anchor. Yost said it appears that the water around the mooring is shallower than indicated on nautical charts, which have not been updated since 1975.

On Wednesday, two state lands commissioners, Controller Gray Davis and Lt. Gov. Leo T. McCarthy telegramed Yost to request that he “immediately implement a policy requiring captains using these facilities to take current depth readings at the terminal before initiating mooring procedures.”

Beach Cleanup 1 Authorities today may reopen a 3-mile stretch of shoreline from near Warner Avenue to Magnolia Avenue in Huntington Beach if tests show no serious public health threat. 2 Portions of shoreline south to Newport Pier are expected to be closed through the weekend for futher cleanup and and testing. 3 Beaches from Newport Pier south to the entrance of Newport Harbor were reopened earlier this week after biological tests showed no lingering health effects from oil that washed ashore. 4 The shoreline from Corona del Mar south to Crystal Cove State Beach is open, though healthofficials will continue to test samples of sand for possible health threats.