diff --git a/containers/tefca-viewer/src/app/database-service.ts b/containers/tefca-viewer/src/app/database-service.ts
index af6832976..bd7592355 100644
--- a/containers/tefca-viewer/src/app/database-service.ts
+++ b/containers/tefca-viewer/src/app/database-service.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 "use server";
 import { Pool, PoolConfig, QueryResultRow } from "pg";
-// import dotenv from "dotenv";
+import dotenv from "dotenv";
 import { ValueSetItem, valueSetTypeToClincalServiceTypeMap } from "./constants";
 
 const getQuerybyNameSQL = `
@@ -13,7 +13,10 @@ select q.query_name, q.id, qtv.valueset_id, vs.name as valueset_name, vs.author
   where q.query_name = $1;
 `;
 
-// Load environment variables from .env and establish a Pool configuration
+// Load environment variables from tefca.env if not in production
+if (process.env.NODE_ENV !== "production") {
+  dotenv.config({ path: "tefca.env" });
+}
 const dbConfig: PoolConfig = {
   connectionString: process.env.DATABASE_URL,
   max: 10, // Maximum # of connections in the pool
diff --git a/containers/tefca-viewer/tefca.env b/containers/tefca-viewer/tefca.env
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..4554f1170
--- /dev/null
+++ b/containers/tefca-viewer/tefca.env
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+DATABASE_URL=postgresql://postgres:pw@localhost:5432/tefca_db
\ No newline at end of file