diff --git a/src/main/java/gov/usgs/earthquake/nshmp/netcdf/reader/BoundingHazards.java b/src/main/java/gov/usgs/earthquake/nshmp/netcdf/reader/BoundingHazards.java
index 971b6b305116d7270df1428530e5ec42afe40643..bfc5fa8228f18c315cde4eabac024205fc593a83 100644
--- a/src/main/java/gov/usgs/earthquake/nshmp/netcdf/reader/BoundingHazards.java
+++ b/src/main/java/gov/usgs/earthquake/nshmp/netcdf/reader/BoundingHazards.java
@@ -165,10 +165,6 @@ public class BoundingHazards {
           boundingLocations.get(3),
           mapHazardsFromArray(aHazards.section(origin, shape)));
     } catch (IOException | InvalidRangeException e) {
-      // shouldn't get here because the reader was initialized with a valid and
-      // existing netCDF file. Is the only way to trigger this error is to
-      // remove or corrupt the original netCDF file used to initialize the
-      // reader after initialization?
       throw new RuntimeException("Could not read Netcdf file [" + netcdf.path() + "]");
     }