I mean really. When you've stopped laughing, I'll go on. So we haven't exactly eliminated the discharge of pollutants into our waters. Backsliding refers to relaxing the stringency of a permit to discharge waste into a waterbody. With some exceptions, the Act prohibits this - in other words, no backsliding.
Degradation refers to water quality.
The Act requires three types of anti-degradation protection. It protects existing water quality, even when that water quality exceeds what is considered necessary to keep the water safe for swimming or for aquatic organisms, unless lower water quality is necessary to accommodate important economic or social development in the area in which the waters are located. States must designate which waters receive this level of protection. These are called Outstanding National Resource Waters. Indiana doesn't have any.