diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 5436f9cb1..248d8b49e 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ project(
 
 get_directory_property(hasParent PARENT_DIRECTORY)
 if(hasParent)
-  # Unset flags that come from Parent (ie UFS or other coupled build) 
+  # Unset flags that come from Parent (ie UFS or other coupled build)
   # for potential (-r8/-r4) conflict
   set(CMAKE_Fortran_FLAGS "")
   set(CMAKE_C_FLAGS "")
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ endif()
 
 set(MULTI_ESMF OFF CACHE BOOL "Build ww3_multi_esmf library")
 set(NETCDF ON CACHE BOOL "Build NetCDF programs (requires NetCDF)")
-set(ENDIAN "BIG" CACHE STRING "Endianness of unformatted output files. Valid values are 'BIG', 'LITTLE', 'NATIVE'.") 
+set(ENDIAN "BIG" CACHE STRING "Endianness of unformatted output files. Valid values are 'BIG', 'LITTLE', 'NATIVE'.")
 set(EXCLUDE_FIND "" CACHE STRING "Don't try and search for these libraries (assumd to be handled by the compiler/wrapper)")
 
 # make sure all "exclude_find" entries are lower case
@@ -51,9 +51,16 @@ configure_file(${switch_file} ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/switch COPYONLY)
 # Re-configure CMake when switch changes
 set_property(DIRECTORY APPEND PROPERTY CMAKE_CONFIGURE_DEPENDS ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/switch)
 
-if(NOT CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE MATCHES "^(Debug|Release|RelWithDebInfo|MinSizeRel)$")
-  message(STATUS "Setting build type to 'Release' as none was specified.")
-  set(CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE "Release" CACHE STRING "Build type" FORCE)
+# ##MTM
+# if(NOT CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE MATCHES "^(Debug|Release|RelWithDebInfo|MinSizeRel)$")
+#   message(STATUS "Setting build type to 'Release' as none was specified.")
+#   set(CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE "Release" CACHE STRING "Build type" FORCE)
+#   set_property(CACHE CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE PROPERTY STRINGS "Debug" "Release" "MinSizeRel" "RelWithDebInfo")
+# endif()
+# ##MTM
+if(NOT CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE MATCHES "Debug")
+  message(STATUS "Setting build type to 'Debug' as none was specified.")
+  set(CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE "Debug" CACHE STRING "Build type" FORCE)
   set_property(CACHE CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE PROPERTY STRINGS "Debug" "Release" "MinSizeRel" "RelWithDebInfo")
 endif()