diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 0cf6dad1d12..3ae9f4d025f 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -818,6 +818,8 @@ Release 0.90.0 - Unreleased
    HBASE-3412  HLogSplitter should handle missing HLogs
    HBASE-3420  Handling a big rebalance, we can queue multiple instances of
                a Close event; messes up state
+   HBASE-3423  hbase-env.sh over-rides HBASE_OPTS incorrectly (Ted Dunning via
+               Andrew Purtell)
 
 
   IMPROVEMENTS
diff --git a/conf/hbase-env.sh b/conf/hbase-env.sh
index 718ada4749a..f275651f3f2 100644
--- a/conf/hbase-env.sh
+++ b/conf/hbase-env.sh
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@
 # Below are what we set by default.  May only work with SUN JVM.
 # For more on why as well as other possible settings,
 # see http://wiki.apache.org/hadoop/PerformanceTuning
-export HBASE_OPTS="-ea -XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError -XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC -XX:+CMSIncrementalMode"
+export HBASE_OPTS="$HBASE_OPTS -ea -XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError -XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC -XX:+CMSIncrementalMode"
 
 # Uncomment below to enable java garbage collection logging.
 # export HBASE_OPTS="$HBASE_OPTS -verbose:gc -XX:+PrintGCDetails -XX:+PrintGCDateStamps -Xloggc:$HBASE_HOME/logs/gc-hbase.log"