As a net water production entity where unconventional oil and gas extraction operations generate volumes of hypersaline water (known as produced water, PW) greater than they consume, it is imperative to consider what options are available for this new source of water to displace water demand on the nations already struggling water supplies. The increased awareness of the adverse environmental impacts associated with underground injection is expected to drive PW management away from underground disposal. Meanwhile, the lack of data on the chemical constituents and the toxicological characteristics of treated PW has likely hampered regulatory agencies in developing policies that enable advanced PW treatment for reuse. Therefore, until a PW reuse market emerges to justify the costs of advanced treatment, the most viable PW management strategy for operators is to reduce the volume of PW for disposal. This study examines the cost and environmental benefits of adopting on-site thermal evaporation process through data collected from multiple developmental basins – the Rockies, Appalachia, and Haynesville basins using thermal evaporators. We developed a method for assessing the cost benefit and applied to a hypothetical scenario for Eagle Ford shale to demonstrate the potential benefits of thermal evaporation. The challenges and limitations are also discussed in this paper.