For some companies, Iraq war a lift

SEATTLE – The Iraq war has been good business for a number of small Washington state companies, thanks to earmarks inserted in military budgets by the state’s congressional delegation.

Some are working on exotic new technologies and others are modifying consumer products for military use.

Various Washington companies are designing, developing or producing individual water purification systems, wound patches, food preservation systems, electronic tracing systems and other projects.

Others are working on unmanned surveillance aircraft, drugs for treating radiation exposure, remote security for buildings, long-term blood-platelet storage, flame-resistant gloves and twist-proof ropes.

In the 2006 and 2007 defense budget, Seattle’s Cascade Designs Inc. got three earmarks totaling $7.275 million. Two other earmarks worth $3.3 million went to another Seattle company, Outdoor Research.

Cascade Designs is making tiny, individual water-purification systems and steel-traction snowshoes. Outdoor research is making cold-weather gloves as well as a flame-resistant, cold-weather glove to protect against explosive devices.

Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Norm Dicks are responsible for these earmarks. George Behan, Dicks’ chief of staff, said the Marines bought the water purifiers off the shelf and the military plans to build on the mountain-climbing technology of these small companies.

Dicks and Murray are both on their respective chambers’ appropriations subcommittees on defense as well as on military construction and veterans affairs panels. That helps send hundreds of millions of dollars a year into construction projects at Washington’s nine military installations.

While some of the earmarks are for consumer products that are useful for the military, some are for military items that may someday find a commercial application.

Cascade Designs, for example, has produced a prototype, non-pressurized camp stove that has no moving parts for the Army.

“That’s one where we could see a commercial application for the device,” said company Vice President Pete Haggerty.

Research International, a high-technology company based in Monroe, got a $1 million earmark to develop a portable, automated device for testing the air for biological agents such as bacteria, virus or other toxins.

Chief Executive Elric Saaski sees other applications, such as detecting E. coli bacteria, bird flu and animal diseases.