diff --git a/cime_config/buildnml b/cime_config/buildnml
index af6ba9011..00b3dad35 100755
--- a/cime_config/buildnml
+++ b/cime_config/buildnml
@@ -516,6 +516,24 @@ def buildnml(case, caseroot, component):
     if component != "drv":
         raise AttributeError
 
+#   Do a check here of ESMF VERSION, requires 8.1.0 or newer (8.2.0 or newer for esmf_aware_threading)
+    esmf_aware_threading = case.get_value("ESMF_AWARE_THREADING")
+    esmfmkfile = os.getenv("ESMFMKFILE")
+    expect(esmfmkfile and os.path.isfile(esmfmkfile),"ESMFMKFILE not found {}".format(esmfmkfile))
+    with open(esmfmkfile, 'r') as f:
+        major = None
+        minor = None
+        for line in f.readlines():
+            if 'ESMF_VERSION' in line:
+                major = line[-2] if 'MAJOR' in line else major
+                minor = line[-2] if 'MINOR' in line else minor
+        logger.debug("ESMF version major {} minor {}".format(major,minor))
+        expect(int(major) >=8,"ESMF version should be 8.1 or newer")
+        if esmf_aware_threading:
+            expect(int(minor) >= 2, "ESMF version should be 8.2.0 or newer when using ESMF_AWARE_THREADING")
+        else:
+            expect(int(minor) >= 1, "ESMF version should be 8.1.0 or newer")
+
     confdir = os.path.join(case.get_value("CASEBUILD"), "cplconf")
     if not os.path.isdir(confdir):
         os.makedirs(confdir)
diff --git a/drivers/cime/esm.F90 b/drivers/cime/esm.F90
index ecf6d931d..e1a18f135 100644
--- a/drivers/cime/esm.F90
+++ b/drivers/cime/esm.F90
@@ -981,14 +981,6 @@ subroutine esm_init_pelayout(driver, maxthreads, rc)
        call ESMF_InfoSet(info, key="/NUOPC/Hint/PePerPet/MaxCount", value=nthrds, rc=rc)
        if (chkerr(rc,__LINE__,u_FILE_u)) return
 
-!       call ESMF_InfoSet(info, key="/NUOPC/Hint/PePerPet/MinStackSize", value='40MiB', rc=rc)
-!       if (chkerr(rc,__LINE__,u_FILE_u)) return
-
-       if (nthrds == 1) then
-          call ESMF_InfoSet(info, key="/NUOPC/Hint/PePerPet/OpenMpHandling", value='none', rc=rc)
-          if (chkerr(rc,__LINE__,u_FILE_u)) return
-       endif
-
        call NUOPC_CompAttributeGet(driver, name=trim(namestr)//'_rootpe', value=cvalue, rc=rc)
        if (chkerr(rc,__LINE__,u_FILE_u)) return
        read(cvalue,*) rootpe