A new local law regulating the disposal of houseboat waste on Lake Fontana went into effect March 5, four years after Swain County officials, lake users and marina owners began wrestling with the idea.

The long-awaited change will improve water quality in the lake, which was being polluted with human waste. There are nearly 500 houseboats on the lake and most funneled waste directly into the lake from their toilets, showers and sinks.

The new policy requires houseboat owners to equip their boats with tanks to catch the waste. It cost $500 on average to retrofit a houseboat with the holding tank. The problem, however, was getting the waste off the lake. That hurdle has taken four years to figure out (see related info box).

Marina operators estimate that about 20 percent of the houseboat owners have not installed tanks yet. Most of those appear to be well on their way, however, and will have tanks in place before lake season starts. Only a handful will potentially balk at the ordinance.

Which leads to the second big challenge: figuring out how to police houseboat users.

Marina owners have largely been put in charge of the policing. Only the marina owners have a bird’s eye view of who is coming and going to their houseboats. If they notice a red flag — namely, people visiting their houseboat a lot but rarely getting their tank pumped — they are supposed to report the houseboat owner to the county.

It will be tough to know for sure, however. The size of tanks installed on boats varies widely. Plus, habits among houseboat users vary.

“It depends on how much they use as to how fast it will build up,” said David Monteith, a Swain County commissioner and president of the Fontana Lake Users Association. “If you have a big party you could go through 100 gallons in one weekend. But if it’s just you and your wife and the kids using it, that could last two months.”

It also depends whether houseboat users take showers and do lots of dishes while on their houseboat. Monteith said his family is very conscious of their waste, cooking everything on a grill with tinfoil to reduce dishwashing.

“Even if we cook eggs, we cook on the tinfoil. We don’t even use a frying pan,” Monteith said.

Monteith said houseboat owners are not reluctant to dispose of their waste properly, there just wasn’t a good system in place until now. About 175 people packed an information session in Swain County two weeks ago to learn about the logistics of getting their waste pumped.

“It was slap full, standing room only. Some people sat in the floor,” Monteith said.

Monteith attributes the level of buy-in among houseboat owners at least in part to the affordable cost — $1 a gallon to dispose of the waste. Costs would be much higher if it weren’t for state and local grants that paid for the pump boats and shoreline storage tanks. Since marina owners have no capital costs to recoup, the pump out fee is just enough to cover the hauling costs.

Marina owners will charge an extra $20 to pump on the weekend, a service fee intended to discourage Friday through Sunday pumping.

“Otherwise they will worry you to death on the weekend and that’s when things are the busiest and people are out swimming,” Monteith said.

There is also an extra fee for houseboat users who want their tanks pumped while hanging out in the middle of the lake, out of the marina’s harbor range. That will cost $2 a gallon plus a $10 service fee.

All this waste hauling will add up for the economy. Most boat dock owners have brought on extra staff. Pump boat operators have to go through a training class.