diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index ec00facc9b0..e10e9487ac6 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -538,6 +538,7 @@ Release 0.21.0 - Unreleased
    HBASE-3003  ClassSize constants dont use 'final'
    HBASE-3002  Fix zookeepers.sh to work properly with strange JVM options
    HBASE-3028  No basescanner means no GC'ing of split, offlined parent regions
+   HBASE-2989  [replication] RSM won't cleanup after locking if 0 peers
 
   IMPROVEMENTS
    HBASE-1760  Cleanup TODOs in HTable
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/replication/regionserver/ReplicationSourceManager.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/replication/regionserver/ReplicationSourceManager.java
index 95cd32873d6..991cefadeb6 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/replication/regionserver/ReplicationSourceManager.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/replication/regionserver/ReplicationSourceManager.java
@@ -285,10 +285,10 @@ public class ReplicationSourceManager {
     LOG.info("Moving " + rsZnode + "'s hlogs to my queue");
     SortedMap<String, SortedSet<String>> newQueues =
         this.zkHelper.copyQueuesFromRS(rsZnode);
+    this.zkHelper.deleteRsQueues(rsZnode);
     if (newQueues == null || newQueues.size() == 0) {
       return;
     }
-    this.zkHelper.deleteRsQueues(rsZnode);
 
     for (Map.Entry<String, SortedSet<String>> entry : newQueues.entrySet()) {
       String peerId = entry.getKey();