diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 87c9b59b19..fb2697755e 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
    in clusters with multiple seeds (CASSANDRA-150)
  * fix NPE in get_range_slice when no data is found (CASSANDRA-578)
  * fix potential NPE in hinted handoff (CASSANDRA-585)
+ * fix cleanup of local "system" keyspace (CASSANDRA-576)
 
 
 0.5.0 beta
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/Table.java b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/Table.java
index 7eada62f8b..23231e67f7 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/Table.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/Table.java
@@ -248,6 +248,9 @@ public class Table
      */
     public void forceCleanup()
     {
+        if (table_.equals("system"))
+            throw new RuntimeException("Cleanup of the system table is neither necessary nor wise");
+
         Set<String> columnFamilies = tableMetadata_.getColumnFamilies();
         for ( String columnFamily : columnFamilies )
         {
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/service/StorageService.java b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/service/StorageService.java
index 445e8a7744..1d1f082427 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/service/StorageService.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/service/StorageService.java
@@ -586,8 +586,10 @@ public final class StorageService implements IEndPointStateChangeSubscriber, Sto
     public void forceTableCleanup() throws IOException
     {
         List<String> tables = DatabaseDescriptor.getTables();
-        for ( String tName : tables )
+        for (String tName : tables)
         {
+            if (tName.equals("system"))
+                continue;
             Table table = Table.open(tName);
             table.forceCleanup();
         }