Patent ID: 7300585

Claim:
A method of treating a wastewater effluent stream having a pH in the range of about 11.5 to about 12.5 containing organic and inorganic contaminant material which it is desired to remove from the effluent stream, the method comprising treating the effluent stream with a solution of an acid and a first polymer to reduce the pH of the thus-treated stream to a range of about 5.5 to about 6.5 and to form a precipitate including said organic and inorganic contaminant material, treating the thus-treated stream with a second polymer to flocculate the precipitate, filtering the thus-treated effluent to remove the flocculated precipitate, treating the filtered effluent with at least one of a cationic resin, an anionic resin and carbon filtration, and discharging the resultant stream into a public waste treatment facility.