Patent ID: 7731854

Claim:
An in situ system used for treating a oil and gas well drilling fluid discharged into a reserve pit next to an oil and gas drilling operation, the system treating the fluid and providing clean water for transfer to a clean water storage tank for further use in the drilling operations, the system comprising: a fluid treatment unit adapted for use in the reserve pit, said fluid treatment unit comprising: an electrocoagulation unit with a generator disposed next to the reserve pit for destabilizing contaminants in the drilling fluid and dropping out stable precipitates at the bottom of the reserve pit; a submersible pump electrically connected to the generator for pumping treated fluid from the reserve pit; a water treatment unit for treating the treated fluid from the reserve pit, said water treatment comprising: a heat exchanger connected to said pump for receiving the treated fluid, said heat exchanger heating the fluid; a reverse osmosis unit connected to said heat exchanger, said reverse osmosis unit for removing salt and any remaining mineral found in the fluid and discharging filtered clean water to a storage tank and reject water therefrom, the filtered clean water is transferred to a clean water storage tank for reuse; a primary distillation unit connected to said heat exchanger for treating heated reject water, said primary distillation unit for converting the reject water to steam; a condenser connected to said primary distillation unit, said condenser for cooling the steam to distilled clean water, the clean water from said condenser transferred to the clean water storage tank.