636
Opinion of White, J.
to draft its legislation with greater clarity or precision does not justify a refusal to make a good-faith effort to ascertain the actual meaning of the message it tried to convey in a statutory provision that is already on the books." Nordic Village, ante, at 45 (Stevens, J., dissenting).
The unambiguous language of the federal facilities and citizen suit provisions of the CWA clearly contemplate a waiver of immunity as to suit for civil damages, and "once Congress has waived sovereign immunity over certain subject matter, the Court should be careful not to 'assume the authority to narrow the waiver that Congress intended.' " Ardestani v. INS, 502 U. S. 129, 137 (1991), quoting United States v. Kubrick, 444 U. S. 111, 118 (1979); Irwin v. Department of Veterans Affairs, 498 U. S. 89, 94 (1990).
II
Turning to the RCRA, I agree with the majority and with the Court of Appeals that the RCRA federal facilities provision does not effect an unambiguous waiver of immunity from civil penalties, 42 U. S. C. § 6961. See ante, at 627-628. The section makes no reference to civil penalties and, instead, waives immunity for "any such injunctive relief." This language comports with the Government's claim that the waiver is intended to reach only coercive and not punitive sanctions. The provision certainly does not unequivocally encompass civil penalties. Therefore, I join Part II-C of the Court's opinion.
However, I would find a waiver under RCRA's citizen suit provision, 42 U. S. C. § 6972(a), see ante, at 616, which is very similar to the citizen suit provision in the CWA, for the reasons I have explained above. See Part I-A-1, supra.
III
The job of this Court is to determine what a statute says, not whether it could have been drafted more artfully. In these cases, the federal facilities and citizen suit provisions of
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