diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 5c50002739a..b579d89aa8e 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -427,6 +427,7 @@ Release 0.92.0 - Unreleased
    HBASE-4478  Improve AssignmentManager.handleRegion so that it can process certain ZK state
                in the case of RS offline
    HBASE-4777  Write back to client 'incompatible' if we show up with wrong version
+   HBASE-4775  Remove -ea from all but tests; enable it if you need it testing
 
   TESTS
    HBASE-4450  test for number of blocks read: to serve as baseline for expected
diff --git a/conf/hbase-env.sh b/conf/hbase-env.sh
index 2aa723d6f34..34e179a0653 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:+UseConcMarkSweepGC"
+export HBASE_OPTS="-XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC"
 
 # Uncomment below to enable java garbage collection logging in the .out file.
 # export HBASE_OPTS="$HBASE_OPTS -verbose:gc -XX:+PrintGCDetails -XX:+PrintGCDateStamps"