Local officials say a new state law allowing fireworks to be banned in some areas of the county will be difficult or near impossible to enforce, but it may be the strongest regulation legislators will permit.

County property owners can apply for a fireworks ban on their land and any public property that borders it under the state law sponsored by Rep. Alan Clemmons, R-Myrtle Beach.

The law is meant to provide relief along oceanfront areas such as Garden City Beach, where revelers often disturb residents with loud bangs in the night.

But, as Horry County prepares to pass a local version of the law April 5, County Council members say an already-overworked police force will not be able to make enforcement a priority.

The county had hoped the General Assembly would give it the power to create its own ban.

"I think there is going to be a challenge on enforcement," Public Safety Director Paul Whitten said. "We are seeing increasing calls for service. The reality is fireworks calls are not the highest-priority calls."

County police are struggling to keep up with a growing population. In the past several years, response times to emergency calls nearly has doubled.

"It is going to be hard to enforce, if not impossible, with the number of officers we have on the force," Councilman Marion Foxworth said.

Police instead must focus on crimes such as domestic violence, robberies and assaults - so fireworks violations will be low on the priority list, said Councilman John Boyd, who leads the county Public Safety Committee and helped craft the local version of the fireworks law.

Empowering the county to regulate fireworks could create better results, but Horry County must work with what was legislated, he said.

"In an ideal world, they would let the county decide how to regulate it," Boyd said. "There are so many options if they would allow us to decide like the cities," which are allowed to ban fireworks under state law.

Columbia has resisted giving counties power over fireworks for years - many say because of a strong fireworks industry lobby - and the new law narrowly was approved after the General Assembly overrode a veto by Gov. Mark Sanford in January.

Clemmons said he worked to get the law passed for more than two years. It was his first piece of proposed legislation after being elected.

"Would I like it to be more than what we had? Yes," Clemmons said. But when he attempted a law putting the county in control of regulation, "that legislation met with insurmountable roadblocks."

Still, the passage of the law is a positive step forward for those in the county who say fireworks are a nuisance and a safety hazard, he said.

"We now have a tool for fireworks enforcement that we have never had before," Clemmons said.

Rep. Thad Viers, R-Myrtle Beach, said the Columbia fireworks lobby is powerful but the real issue is over private-property rights.

Regulation of fireworks should be in the hands of property owners and not the county, Viers said.

"[Horry County] should not have, nor will I support them having, the authority to ban fireworks," he said. "If they have the authority to do that, what else would they have the authority to do?"

Along with its new proposed regulations, Horry County is working to create an efficient system for residents who apply for a ban. Property owners would submit an application to Public Safety and, after a review, the county would schedule an appointment, Whitten said.

When applicants show up, they would cycle through six stations and could complete the entire process within 30 minutes, though the county still must run tests to determine if that time is realistic, Whitten said.

Aluminum signs to post on properties would be mailed to residents within a few days, he said.

The first tests on the proposed system will run after the final reading of the local ordinance during the regular County Council meeting April 5, Whitten said.