diff --git a/src/lib/src/main/java/gov/usgs/earthquake/nshmp/netcdf/NetcdfDataType.java b/src/lib/src/main/java/gov/usgs/earthquake/nshmp/netcdf/NetcdfDataType.java
index d7bb13c55cb393d6fad60b864e903487580fee39..11196fac65c5b1306db819dbdff68bac8c1bb7cf 100644
--- a/src/lib/src/main/java/gov/usgs/earthquake/nshmp/netcdf/NetcdfDataType.java
+++ b/src/lib/src/main/java/gov/usgs/earthquake/nshmp/netcdf/NetcdfDataType.java
@@ -1,12 +1,10 @@
 package gov.usgs.earthquake.nshmp.netcdf;
 
-import java.io.IOException;
 import java.nio.file.Path;
 
+import gov.usgs.earthquake.nshmp.netcdf.reader.NetcdfUtils;
 import gov.usgs.earthquake.nshmp.netcdf.reader.NetcdfUtils.Key;
 
-import ucar.nc2.dataset.NetcdfDatasets;
-
 /**
  * Supported NetCDF data types.
  */
@@ -21,12 +19,7 @@ public enum NetcdfDataType {
    * @param netcdfPath Path to NetCDF file
    */
   public static NetcdfDataType getDataType(Path netcdfPath) {
-    try (var ncd = NetcdfDatasets.openDataset(netcdfPath.toString())) {
-      var group = ncd.getRootGroup();
-      var vDataType = group.attributes().findAttribute(Key.DATA_TYPE);
-      return NetcdfDataType.valueOf(vDataType.getStringValue());
-    } catch (IOException e) {
-      throw new RuntimeException("Could not read Netcdf file [" + netcdfPath + " ]");
-    }
+    return NetcdfDataType
+        .valueOf(NetcdfUtils.readAttribute(Key.DATA_TYPE, netcdfPath).getStringValue());
   }
 }