A method for treating an effluent stream containing material which it is desired to remove from the effluent stream comprises 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, 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. Another method for treating an effluent stream having a pH in the range of about pH 2 to about pH 6.5 containing material which it is desired to remove from the effluent stream comprises treating the effluent stream with a solution of acid and hydrated polymer to form a precipitate, filtering the precipitate, collecting the filtered solids, disposing of the filtered solids, passing the resulting filtrate through at least one of an anionic exchange device, a cationic exchange device and a carbon filter, and discharging the resultant stream into a public waste treatment facility.