Claim: Oil clean-up crews sent away as body parts washed up on beach

A former BP contractor who worked on Gulf oil clean-up efforts is alleging that officials ordered clean-up crews off a Florida beach shortly before human body parts began to wash up on shore.

The contractor, who insisted that he remain anonymous because he was ordered not to talk about what he had seen and heard, made the allegation in a videotaped interview with Gregg Hall, a citizen journalist in Pensacola, Florida, who has been chronicling the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster.

The contractor says he was working on a clean-up crew on the beach in Destin, Florida, when supervisors ordered the crew off the beach.

"One hour after we were shifted [out], body parts started washing up on Destin," the contractor said. "Hands, arms, one leg with a foot on it. That wasn't talked about."

"I've never heard about that," a surprised Hall responded.

The unnamed contractor went on to explain that a separate crew at the Destin site had dug a 15-foot deep trench on the beach, and supervisors wouldn't explain why it was being dug.

"Once they dug the hole and covered it up, everybody disappeared. Boom, they were gone," the contractor said. "No telling what could be in there."

"We were told at that time, don't say anything to anybody," the contractor continued. "If they ask you questions, you can say one thing, talk to that white shirt [supervisor] over there."

The contractor said there was a system in place to give the "runaround" to anyone asking questions by referring them to one official after another.

The contractor also said he heard supervisors talking openly about BP paying researchers "so that they would report the way BP wanted them to." BP wanted these studies to "quieten people down" about the oil spill, he alleged.

But the contractor stressed this was only what he heard from supervisors. "Whether that's a fact, I don't know."

The following video was posted to YouTube by Gregg Hall of PColaGregg.