Cite as: 503 U. S. 607 (1992)
Opinion of White, J.
provisions of the CWA are so read, the conclusion becomes inescapable that Congress intended to waive sovereign immunity for civil penalties under the statute.
The federal facilities provision, 33 U. S. C. § 1323(a), see ante, at 620, both establishes the Government's duty to comply with the substantive and procedural requirements of the CWA and explicitly waives immunity for civil penalties. The first part of the federal facilities provision states that the Federal Government is subject to "any process and sanction," regardless of the court in which it is enforced.
The majority devotes three pages of its opinion to a tortured discussion of whether subjecting the Government to "process and sanction" encompasses liability for civil penalties. See ante, at 621-623. Rather than engaging in these analytic gymnastics, the Court needed to do nothing more than read the rest of the federal facilities provision. It clearly states:
"[T]he United States shall be liable only for those civil penalties arising under Federal law or imposed by a State or local court to enforce an order or the process of such court." 33 U. S. C. § 1323(a).
Obviously, Congress intended the United States to be liable for civil penalties. The plain language of the statute says so. Therefore, the broad term "sanctions" used earlier in the same subsection must include these penalties. Any other reading would contravene the "ancient and sound rule of construction that each word in a statute should, if possible, be given effect." Crandon v. United States, 494 U. S. 152, 171 (1990) (Scalia, J., concurring in judgment); Mountain States Telephone & Telegraph Co. v. Pueblo of Santa Ana, 472 U. S. 237, 249 (1985); Colautti v. Franklin, 439 U. S. 379, 392 (1979).
The question, then, is not whether Congress has waived federal immunity for civil penalties. The waiver here unambiguously reached those claims for civil penalties "arising
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