Cashing in on Hanford cleanup difficult for Northwest firms. (Hanford Nuclear Reservation)

After five futile years of seeking work at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, Seattle-based Shannon & Wilson Inc. put the cart before the horse and established a Kennewick office.

"We opened our office with no contract. That's what it takes," said Shannon & Wilson Vice President Dick Gates. The environmental remediation firm has since landed two contracts, together worth $1.25 million, with Westinghouse Hanford Co., the site's maintenance and operation contractor.

"We in the west (half of the state) can benefit from that work at Hanford, but it takes a very dedicated effort," Gates said.

Talcs like these make executives of Western Washington environmental firms wary.They'd like to believe that Hanford's $1.6 billion annual cleanup budget will boost the state's environmental industry out of its two-year doldrums, but the reality so far has been mixed.

While it's true that a few of Western Washington's larger environmental firms have won significant work at Hanford, the much-vaunted cornucopia has eluded many small firms.

But the potential is too large for Northwest environmental firms to ignore. For more than 40 years Hanford was …