Cavitating water jets were used to degrade complicated organic compounds sampled from landfill leachate from a sanitary landfill in Chongqing, P. R. China. The law of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and the impact of factors such as pumping pressure, confining pressure, cavitating time and pH were evaluated in the experiment. We concluded that a cavitating water jet can degrade complicated organic compounds. Cavitating water jets therefore can improve biological oxygen demand (BOD)5/COD. The optimal cavitating condition was also obtained: at a pH 9.0, confining pressure 0.6MPa, cavitating time 90mins and pumping pressure 10MPa,the COD, BOD5 and BOD5/COD increase to 124.8%, 293.3% and 52.44% respectively. Chromaticity decreases while SS increase to 191.5%. These changes create good conditions for subsequent treatment.