The performance evaluation of the effluent treatment plants (ETP) is generally based on measuring only the quality of the final effluent, not taking into account other parameters, which also contribute substantially to the performance. In this sense, indicators are important tools, for being able to summarize in a single value the state of the object evaluated, considering its various aspects and characteristics. The objective of this work is to score the importance of performance indicators for ETP evaluation and licensing, in addition to evaluating the use of ETP quality indicators established through two institutional norms (NOI-INEA 11 and NOI-INEA 14) prepared by the State Institute of Environment (INEA - Instituto Estadual do Ambiente), an environmental agency of the state of Rio de Janeiro. A bibliographic review was carried out on articles on the subject of ETP performance indicators, together with a survey on the websites of all state and district environmental agencies. In addition, for critical analysis, the methodology for researching official documents in INEA's digital archive was adopted. With this, it was possible to perceive that, in Brazil, the existence of legislation that uses indicators for ETP evaluation is still restricted to the alluded state. However, despite being little used, the indicators have great potential to assist in environmental licensing and in the substantiation of technical opinions, contributing to better information and participation of society.