diff --git a/flow/alerting/alerting.go b/flow/alerting/alerting.go
index b62e34df92..ad29be6c76 100644
--- a/flow/alerting/alerting.go
+++ b/flow/alerting/alerting.go
@@ -52,10 +52,14 @@ func (a *Alerter) registerSendersFromPool(ctx context.Context) ([]AlertSenderCon
 
 			alertSenderConfigs = append(alertSenderConfigs, AlertSenderConfig{Id: id, Sender: newSlackAlertSender(&slackServiceConfig)})
 		case EMAIL:
+			var replyToAddresses []string
+			if envString := strings.TrimSpace(peerdbenv.PeerDBAlertingEmailSenderReplyToAddresses()); len(envString) != 0 {
+				replyToAddresses = strings.Split(envString, ",")
+			}
 			emailServiceConfig := EmailAlertSenderConfig{
 				sourceEmail:          peerdbenv.PeerDBAlertingEmailSenderSourceEmail(),
 				configurationSetName: peerdbenv.PeerDBAlertingEmailSenderConfigurationSet(),
-				replyToAddresses:     strings.Split(peerdbenv.PeerDBAlertingEmailSenderReplyToAddresses(), ","),
+				replyToAddresses:     replyToAddresses,
 			}
 			if emailServiceConfig.sourceEmail == "" {
 				return errors.New("missing sourceEmail for Email alerting service")
diff --git a/flow/alerting/email_alert_sender.go b/flow/alerting/email_alert_sender.go
index 2862a3fb59..2a534318c0 100644
--- a/flow/alerting/email_alert_sender.go
+++ b/flow/alerting/email_alert_sender.go
@@ -83,15 +83,11 @@ func NewEmailAlertSenderWithNewClient(ctx context.Context, region *string, confi
 }
 
 func NewEmailAlertSender(client *ses.Client, config *EmailAlertSenderConfig) *EmailAlertSender {
-	replyToAddresses := config.replyToAddresses
-	if len(replyToAddresses) == 0 {
-		replyToAddresses = []string{config.sourceEmail}
-	}
 	return &EmailAlertSender{
 		client:                        client,
 		sourceEmail:                   config.sourceEmail,
 		configurationSetName:          config.configurationSetName,
-		replyToAddresses:              replyToAddresses,
+		replyToAddresses:              config.replyToAddresses,
 		slotLagMBAlertThreshold:       config.SlotLagMBAlertThreshold,
 		openConnectionsAlertThreshold: config.OpenConnectionsAlertThreshold,
 		emailAddresses:                config.EmailAddresses,