diff --git a/java-bigquery-jdbc/pom.xml b/java-bigquery-jdbc/pom.xml
index c3b049c596e4..24bd9b89eec9 100644
--- a/java-bigquery-jdbc/pom.xml
+++ b/java-bigquery-jdbc/pom.xml
@@ -32,7 +32,6 @@
     <github.global.server>github</github.global.server>
     <site.installationModule>google-cloud-bigquery-jdbc</site.installationModule>
     <skipShade>false</skipShade>
-    <preferIpv4.test.argLine>-Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true</preferIpv4.test.argLine>
   </properties>
 
   <build>
@@ -48,7 +47,6 @@
         <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
         <version>3.5.2</version>
         <configuration>
-          <argLine>@{argLine} ${preferIpv4.test.argLine}</argLine>
           <skip>${skipSurefire}</skip>
           <systemPropertyVariables>
             <JDBC_TESTS>true</JDBC_TESTS>
@@ -59,7 +57,6 @@
         <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
         <artifactId>maven-failsafe-plugin</artifactId>
         <configuration>
-          <argLine>@{argLine} ${preferIpv4.test.argLine}</argLine>
           <systemPropertyVariables>
             <JDBC_TESTS>true</JDBC_TESTS>
           </systemPropertyVariables>
@@ -480,14 +477,14 @@
             <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
             <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
             <configuration>
-              <argLine>@{argLine} ${preferIpv4.test.argLine} --add-opens=java.base/java.nio=org.apache.arrow.memory.core,ALL-UNNAMED</argLine>
+              <argLine>--add-opens=java.base/java.nio=org.apache.arrow.memory.core,ALL-UNNAMED</argLine>
             </configuration>
           </plugin>
           <plugin>
             <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
             <artifactId>maven-failsafe-plugin</artifactId>
             <configuration>
-              <argLine>@{argLine} ${preferIpv4.test.argLine} --add-opens=java.base/java.nio=org.apache.arrow.memory.core,ALL-UNNAMED</argLine>
+              <argLine>--add-opens=java.base/java.nio=org.apache.arrow.memory.core,ALL-UNNAMED</argLine>
             </configuration>
           </plugin>
         </plugins>
diff --git a/java-bigquery-jdbc/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/bigquery/jdbc/BigQueryConnection.java b/java-bigquery-jdbc/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/bigquery/jdbc/BigQueryConnection.java
index bee7d08e8607..a4aee6142f40 100644
--- a/java-bigquery-jdbc/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/bigquery/jdbc/BigQueryConnection.java
+++ b/java-bigquery-jdbc/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/bigquery/jdbc/BigQueryConnection.java
@@ -1185,6 +1185,7 @@ void removeStatement(Statement statement) {
   }
 
   private OpenTelemetry getOpenTelemetryInstance() {
+    BigQueryJdbcOpenTelemetry.ensureGlobalHandlerAttached();
 
     String effectiveProjectId =
         (this.gcpTelemetryProjectId != null) ? this.gcpTelemetryProjectId : this.catalog;
diff --git a/java-bigquery-jdbc/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/bigquery/jdbc/OpenTelemetryJulHandler.java b/java-bigquery-jdbc/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/bigquery/jdbc/OpenTelemetryJulHandler.java
index af5e5278ffb6..79874f7d085a 100644
--- a/java-bigquery-jdbc/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/bigquery/jdbc/OpenTelemetryJulHandler.java
+++ b/java-bigquery-jdbc/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/bigquery/jdbc/OpenTelemetryJulHandler.java
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@
 import io.opentelemetry.context.Context;
 import java.time.Instant;
 import java.util.Collections;
+import java.util.logging.ErrorManager;
 import java.util.logging.Handler;
 import java.util.logging.Level;
 import java.util.logging.LogRecord;
@@ -78,7 +79,8 @@ public void publish(LogRecord record) {
         publishToOTel(record, connectionId, config.openTelemetry);
       }
     } catch (Throwable t) {
-      // Ignore exceptions to prevent breaking application logging or other handlers
+      Exception ex = (t instanceof Exception) ? (Exception) t : new Exception(t);
+      reportError("Error publishing log to OpenTelemetry/GCP", ex, ErrorManager.WRITE_FAILURE);
     }
   }
 
@@ -182,7 +184,7 @@ public void flush() {
         try {
           config.loggingClient.flush();
         } catch (Exception e) {
-          // Ignore failures during flush to protect other connections
+          reportError("Error flushing log to OpenTelemetry/GCP", e, ErrorManager.FLUSH_FAILURE);
         }
       }
     }
diff --git a/java-bigquery-jdbc/src/test/java/com/google/cloud/bigquery/jdbc/it/ITBigQueryJDBCTest.java b/java-bigquery-jdbc/src/test/java/com/google/cloud/bigquery/jdbc/it/ITBigQueryJDBCTest.java
index ecffb1aa25c9..aa44e64d7438 100644
--- a/java-bigquery-jdbc/src/test/java/com/google/cloud/bigquery/jdbc/it/ITBigQueryJDBCTest.java
+++ b/java-bigquery-jdbc/src/test/java/com/google/cloud/bigquery/jdbc/it/ITBigQueryJDBCTest.java
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@
 import com.google.cloud.bigquery.jdbc.BigQueryConnection;
 import com.google.cloud.bigquery.jdbc.BigQueryDriver;
 import com.google.cloud.bigquery.jdbc.DataSource;
+import com.google.cloud.bigquery.jdbc.OpenTelemetryJulHandler;
 import com.google.common.collect.ImmutableMap;
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.IOException;
@@ -2808,8 +2809,10 @@ public void testPerConnectionLoggingE2E() throws SQLException, IOException {
       java.util.logging.Logger bqLogger =
           java.util.logging.Logger.getLogger("com.google.cloud.bigquery");
       for (java.util.logging.Handler h : bqLogger.getHandlers()) {
-        h.close();
-        bqLogger.removeHandler(h);
+        if (!(h instanceof OpenTelemetryJulHandler)) {
+          h.close();
+          bqLogger.removeHandler(h);
+        }
       }
 
       // Verify physical connection-specific log file creation
diff --git a/java-bigquery-jdbc/src/test/java/com/google/cloud/bigquery/jdbc/it/ITOpenTelemetryTest.java b/java-bigquery-jdbc/src/test/java/com/google/cloud/bigquery/jdbc/it/ITOpenTelemetryTest.java
index 8bdf20ec90e1..444b92fcefc0 100644
--- a/java-bigquery-jdbc/src/test/java/com/google/cloud/bigquery/jdbc/it/ITOpenTelemetryTest.java
+++ b/java-bigquery-jdbc/src/test/java/com/google/cloud/bigquery/jdbc/it/ITOpenTelemetryTest.java
@@ -45,10 +45,8 @@
 import java.sql.Statement;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.List;
-import org.junit.jupiter.api.Tag;
 import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
 
-@Tag("known_issue") // b/539615312
 public class ITOpenTelemetryTest extends ITBase {
 
   private static final String PROJECT_ID = ServiceOptions.getDefaultProjectId();
@@ -309,7 +307,7 @@ private Trace verifyAndFetchTrace(String traceId) throws Exception {
 
   private <T> T pollWithRetry(java.util.concurrent.Callable<T> task) throws InterruptedException {
     int attempts = 0;
-    int maxAttempts = 24;
+    int maxAttempts = 10;
     long delayMs = 10000;
 
     // 10 second wait for GCP to ingest data