The effects of dissipation on the weakly nonlinear interactions between a marginally unstable baroclinic wave and a resonant topographic wave are examined using multiple time scales in a quasigeostrophic, two-layer model on a midlatitude beta plane channel. The lower boundary is characterized by sinusoidal bottom topography. The dissipation is chosen as one or a combination of the following forms: Ekman dissipation at the lower and upper boundaries which may be chosen different in strength, interfacial Ekman dissipation, thickness damping, and potential vorticity damping (PVD).