Southeast Houghton Area Recharge Project

The Shirley C. Scott Southeast Houghton Area Recharge Project (SHARP) is the newest addition to Tucson Water’s reclaimed water system. The project includes three recharge basins that help replenish the aquifer on Tucson’s eastside, as well as year-round recreation facilities open to the public.

Visitors can enjoy 40 acres of desert landscape to walk, jog, cycle, or just relax under a shady ramada. You can also see water in the basins (seasonally) and look for the wildlife it attracts.

Recharging Recycled Water

SHARP’s three recharge basins total 6.8 acres and can recharge to up to 1.3 billion gallons of water each year.

Reclaimed water is typically used to irrigate golf courses, parks, and schools, especially in the hot summer months. When demand is low in the winter, excess water is released from the Houghton Reclaimed Reservoir into one of SHARP’s recharge basins. The water then soaks into the soil where it is stored in the aquifer underground for later use.

Basin Expansion Planned for 2025

A fourth recharge basin will be coming to SHARP in 2025, nearly doubling the facility’s annual storage capacity. Construction on the new basin will begin in September 2025 and is expected to complete by spring 2026. Use of some areas may be restricted to the public during construction so please use caution when visiting.

Recreation and Amenities

SHARP offers 1.6 miles of two-way walking/running trails around basins including a paved pathway accessible to wheelchairs and other mobility devices. A single-track mountain biking trail – part of the larger Fantasy Island Trails system – hugs the edges of the property.

Other amenities include:

Three ramadas with picnic tables
Bike racks
Benches beside basins
Restrooms and a water station at the main entrance
Over 1500 low water use desert plants, including 500 trees irrigated with reclaimed water and rainwater

Water Resource Education

The SHARP facility includes several features to educate the public about water resources, including interpretive signs about how the recharge basins work and recycling water in the desert.

You can see demonstrations of both active and passive rainwater harvesting systems, as well as graded landscapes to capture and use street run off. SHARP also includes three drywells to capture different types of stormwater runoff and study its quality, infiltration rate, and other potential uses.

Interested in implementing your own water harvesting measures? Check out Tucson Water’s rebate programs.