LA'IE — After three years of campaigning, La'ie residents have parity.

Homeowners at La'ie Point and on the coast opposite the Polynesian Cultural Center have learned that, like their neighbors, they will not have to pay to connect into the Hawai'i Reserves Inc. wastewater treatment facility, which the city recently acquired.

Some 170 of the 700 houses in La'ie were dropped from a multimillion-dollar sewer connection project in 2003 for lack of sufficient funding. They faced thousands of dollars in sewer connection fees when the city finally got around to hooking them up, and they were angry.

"We appreciate (Mayor) Mufi Hannemann very much because all this time our argument has always been that this is an issue of equity and fairness," said Choon James, who led residents in their protest. "We wanted to be treated equally like the rest of La'ie."

La'ie is unique in that a private company, HRI (an affiliate of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), provides water, sewer treatment and road maintenance. That's because the church once owned and developed lease land there, but lease conversion is changing the area. About eight years ago, HRI decided to get out of the wastewater business, where it was losing more than $1 million a year.

But first it had to upgrade the system, plan for the hookups and get a majority of the residents on the low-pressure collection system.

Initially the residents, the city and HRI were to share the cost of hookups, but the price tag was millions more than expected and that sent HRI back to the drawing board. HRI finally decided it would be less expensive to finance the project and provide free hookups to get a majority of people on board. The city contributed to the cost of the project.

By the time the transfer is done, HRI will have spent more than $31 million and the city will have spent more than $13 million on the La'ie wastewater collection and treatment system, according to a press release from the city.

The system includes the La'ie Water Reclamation Facility, which treats wastewater to stringent tertiary standards and was built by HRI for $20 million.

"It's a win for both the city and HRI," said Eric Beaver, president and chief executive officer for HRI. "It's a win for the community, and it's a win for the environment."

Beaver said HRI will contract to install the system to the rest of the community. He said the new technology is a model that can be used in coastal areas where setting pipes deep into the ground is expensive because of the high water table. Using the low-pressure system that relies on pumps to move wastewater cuts the cost of construction in half, Beaver said.

The final phase of connecting the rest of La'ie is estimated to cost about $7.2 million, said Carrie Okinaga, city Corporation Counsel. HRI's contribution will be $2.7 million, and the city has received $1 million in federal grants, Okinaga said. There is a possibility of additional federal loans but that is being evaluated against the cost of using city bond money, she said.

"This is ending up sewering all of La'ie and getting people off cesspools," Okinaga said. "So it's good for the environment, and the community feels fairness has been attained."

Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com.