diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 280bf66e9b4..c4d6a919892 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -833,6 +833,11 @@ Release 0.92.0 - Unreleased
    HBASE-2742  Provide strong authentication with a secure RPC engine
    HBASE-3025  Coprocessor based access control
 
+Release 0.90.6 - Unreleased
+
+  BUG FIXES
+   HBASE-4970  Add a parameter so that keepAliveTime of Htable thread pool can be changed (gaojinchao)
+
 Release 0.90.5 - Unreleased
 
   BUG FIXES
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/HTable.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/HTable.java
index e59f99c85c0..8cc64442d3a 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/HTable.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/HTable.java
@@ -169,12 +169,14 @@ public class HTable implements HTableInterface, Closeable {
     if (maxThreads == 0) {
       maxThreads = 1; // is there a better default?
     }
+    long keepAliveTime = conf.getLong("hbase.htable.threads.keepalivetime", 60);
+
     // Using the "direct handoff" approach, new threads will only be created
     // if it is necessary and will grow unbounded. This could be bad but in HCM
     // we only create as many Runnables as there are region servers. It means
     // it also scales when new region servers are added.
     this.pool = new ThreadPoolExecutor(1, maxThreads,
-        60, TimeUnit.SECONDS,
+        keepAliveTime, TimeUnit.SECONDS,
         new SynchronousQueue<Runnable>(),
         new DaemonThreadFactory());
     ((ThreadPoolExecutor)this.pool).allowCoreThreadTimeOut(true);