The main effect of dust on drift wave turbulence is the enhancement of the nonadiabaticity. Previous Work found that nonmodal behavior is important in the nonadiabatic regime of the drift wave system. Here, the modal and nonmodal properties of the linear Hasegawa-Wakatani system of dusty plasmas are investigated. The non-normality of the linear evolution operator can lead to enhanced transient growth rates compared to the modal growth rates. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3442744]