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In October 1999, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency amended its state rule for individual sewage treatment standards to include performance standards. The standards were developed after assessing the outcomes achieved by conventional systems and applying those outcomes to performance standards. The standards are broad in nature to allow maximum design flexibility. The standards are based on protection of public health, safety, the environment, and include provisions for consumer awareness. A design assessment model for performance systems is based on giving treatment credit for known treatment components such as loading rates, soil separation, soil texture and dosing frequency. In this manner, the designer can adjust the various design parameters to conceptually meet performance expectations. This paper describes the process used to develop performance standards, justification for the selected standards, and a method to assess a system design.