diff --git a/qqq-backend-module-rdbms/pom.xml b/qqq-backend-module-rdbms/pom.xml
index 3e9be513..a7ba512e 100644
--- a/qqq-backend-module-rdbms/pom.xml
+++ b/qqq-backend-module-rdbms/pom.xml
@@ -42,6 +42,13 @@
          <groupId>com.kingsrook.qqq</groupId>
          <artifactId>qqq-backend-core</artifactId>
          <version>${revision}</version>
+         <exclusions>
+            <exclusion>
+               <!-- for c3p0 connection pooling - transitively brought in by quartz -->
+               <groupId>com.mchange</groupId>
+               <artifactId>mchange-commons-java</artifactId>
+            </exclusion>
+         </exclusions>
       </dependency>
 
       <!-- 3rd party deps specifically for this module -->