diff --git a/.pre-commit-config.yaml b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
index 8912e9b5..1bbd7878 100644
--- a/.pre-commit-config.yaml
+++ b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
@@ -26,6 +26,6 @@ repos:
     hooks:
     - id: black
 -   repo: https://gitlab.com/pycqa/flake8
-    rev: 3.9.0
+    rev: 3.9.1
     hooks:
     - id: flake8
diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.rst b/CONTRIBUTING.rst
index 191a6efc..5a969313 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.rst
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.rst
@@ -160,21 +160,7 @@ Running System Tests
   auth settings and change some configuration in your project to
   run all the tests.
 
-- System tests will be run against an actual project and
-  so you'll need to provide some environment variables to facilitate
-  authentication to your project:
-
-  - ``GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS``: The path to a JSON key file;
-    Such a file can be downloaded directly from the developer's console by clicking
-    "Generate new JSON key". See private key
-    `docs <https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/authentication#generating-a-private-key>`__
-    for more details.
-
-- Once you have downloaded your json keys, set the environment variable 
-  ``GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS`` to the absolute path of the json file::
-
-   $ export GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS="/Users/<your_username>/path/to/app_credentials.json"
-
+- System tests will be run against an actual project. You should use local credentials from gcloud when possible. See `Best practices for application authentication <https://cloud.google.com/docs/authentication/best-practices-applications#local_development_and_testing_with_the>`__. Some tests require a service account. For those tests see `Authenticating as a service account <https://cloud.google.com/docs/authentication/production>`__.
 
 *************
 Test Coverage
diff --git a/noxfile.py b/noxfile.py
index 3a0007ba..f4d7b3b6 100644
--- a/noxfile.py
+++ b/noxfile.py
@@ -66,16 +66,9 @@ def lint(session):
     session.run("flake8", "pybigquery", "tests")
 
 
-@nox.session(python="3.6")
+@nox.session(python=DEFAULT_PYTHON_VERSION)
 def blacken(session):
-    """Run black.
-
-    Format code to uniform standard.
-
-    This currently uses Python 3.6 due to the automated Kokoro run of synthtool.
-    That run uses an image that doesn't have 3.6 installed. Before updating this
-    check the state of the `gcp_ubuntu_config` we use for that Kokoro run.
-    """
+    """Run black. Format code to uniform standard."""
     session.install(BLACK_VERSION)
     session.run(
         "black", *BLACK_PATHS,
@@ -133,9 +126,6 @@ def system(session):
     # Check the value of `RUN_SYSTEM_TESTS` env var. It defaults to true.
     if os.environ.get("RUN_SYSTEM_TESTS", "true") == "false":
         session.skip("RUN_SYSTEM_TESTS is set to false, skipping")
-    # Sanity check: Only run tests if the environment variable is set.
-    if not os.environ.get("GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS", ""):
-        session.skip("Credentials must be set via environment variable")
     # Install pyopenssl for mTLS testing.
     if os.environ.get("GOOGLE_API_USE_CLIENT_CERTIFICATE", "false") == "true":
         session.install("pyopenssl")
diff --git a/synth.metadata b/synth.metadata
index 5ea14f03..c5a588f1 100644
--- a/synth.metadata
+++ b/synth.metadata
@@ -4,14 +4,7 @@
       "git": {
         "name": ".",
         "remote": "https://github.com/googleapis/python-bigquery-sqlalchemy.git",
-        "sha": "917919371f8b6af4c90efb084da47d4812206e70"
-      }
-    },
-    {
-      "git": {
-        "name": "synthtool",
-        "remote": "https://github.com/googleapis/synthtool.git",
-        "sha": "043cc620d6a6111816d9e09f2a97208565fde958"
+        "sha": "0a3151ba2cb5564ebc1bf2c920b4cab210cd73b8"
       }
     }
   ],