diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index fec2e6d..d93e6ae 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -99,7 +99,7 @@
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.codehaus.plexus</groupId>
       <artifactId>plexus-utils</artifactId>
-      <version>3.0.22</version>
+      <version>3.0.23</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.codehaus.plexus</groupId>
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/plugins/acr/AcrMojo.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/plugins/acr/AcrMojo.java
index c907b39..f104492 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/plugins/acr/AcrMojo.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/plugins/acr/AcrMojo.java
@@ -286,7 +286,10 @@
         try
         {
             xmlReader = new XmlStreamReader( xmlFile );
-            return xmlReader.getEncoding();
+            final String encoding = xmlReader.getEncoding();
+            xmlReader.close();
+            xmlReader = null;
+            return encoding;
         }
         finally
         {