diff --git a/ui-v2/app/env.js b/ui-v2/app/env.js
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..5b4ab0e371cb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ui-v2/app/env.js
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+import config from './config/environment';
+export default function(str) {
+  const user = window.localStorage.getItem(str);
+  return user !== null ? user : config[str];
+}
diff --git a/ui-v2/app/instance-initializers/event-source.js b/ui-v2/app/instance-initializers/event-source.js
index d2a707ee10c0..3ad5c102d0d4 100644
--- a/ui-v2/app/instance-initializers/event-source.js
+++ b/ui-v2/app/instance-initializers/event-source.js
@@ -1,8 +1,7 @@
-import config from '../config/environment';
+import env from 'consul-ui/env';
 
-const enabled = 'CONSUL_UI_DISABLE_REALTIME';
 export function initialize(container) {
-  if (config[enabled] || window.localStorage.getItem(enabled) !== null) {
+  if (env('CONSUL_UI_DISABLE_REALTIME')) {
     return;
   }
   ['node', 'coordinate', 'session', 'service', 'proxy']