diff --git a/src/rosdep2/sources_list.py b/src/rosdep2/sources_list.py
index 8706af3e5c..f9a15cdbd1 100644
--- a/src/rosdep2/sources_list.py
+++ b/src/rosdep2/sources_list.py
@@ -96,7 +96,10 @@ def get_sources_list_dirs(source_list_dir):
 def get_sources_list_dir():
     # base of where we read config files from
     # TODO: windows
-    etc_ros = rospkg.get_etc_ros_dir()
+    if 'ROSDEP_ETC_DIR' in os.environ:
+        etc_ros = os.environ['ROSDEP_ETC_DIR']
+    else:
+        etc_ros = '/etc/ros'
     # compute default system wide sources directory
     sys_sources_list_dir = os.path.join(etc_ros, 'rosdep', SOURCES_LIST_DIR)
     sources_list_dirs = get_sources_list_dirs(sys_sources_list_dir)