diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
index b446bff5204..a54fa432e01 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -273,6 +273,8 @@ Release 2.0.0 - UNRELEASED
 
     HDFS-3142. TestHDFSCLI.testAll is failing. (Brandon Li via atm)
 
+    HDFS-3070. HDFS balancer doesn't ensure that hdfs-site.xml is loaded. (atm)
+
   BREAKDOWN OF HDFS-1623 SUBTASKS
 
     HDFS-2179. Add fencing framework and mechanisms for NameNode HA. (todd)
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/balancer/Balancer.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/balancer/Balancer.java
index 8b2a27d2c2e..bd143c33bc7 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/balancer/Balancer.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/balancer/Balancer.java
@@ -51,6 +51,7 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
 import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configured;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.DFSConfigKeys;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.DFSUtil;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.HdfsConfiguration;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.protocol.Block;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.protocol.DatanodeInfo;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.protocol.ExtendedBlock;
@@ -1550,7 +1551,7 @@ public class Balancer {
    */
   public static void main(String[] args) {
     try {
-      System.exit(ToolRunner.run(null, new Cli(), args));
+      System.exit(ToolRunner.run(new HdfsConfiguration(), new Cli(), args));
     } catch (Throwable e) {
       LOG.error("Exiting balancer due an exception", e);
       System.exit(-1);