diff --git a/handwritten/bigquery/system-test/bigquery.ts b/handwritten/bigquery/system-test/bigquery.ts
index 8a104d9d9db..c447bd39735 100644
--- a/handwritten/bigquery/system-test/bigquery.ts
+++ b/handwritten/bigquery/system-test/bigquery.ts
@@ -38,17 +38,39 @@ import {
 } from '../src';
 import bq from '../src/types';
 
-const bigquery = new BigQuery();
-const storage = new Storage();
+let bigquery = new BigQuery();
+let storage = new Storage();
+
+const runTests = (supportPicoseconds: boolean | undefined) => {
+  const label = supportPicoseconds ? 'with pico' : 'without pico';
+
+describe(`BigQuery (${label})`, () => {
+  const originalValue = process.env.BIGQUERY_PICOSECOND_SUPPORT;
+
+  let dataset = bigquery.dataset(generateName('dataset'));
+  let table = dataset.table(generateName('table'));
+  let bucket = storage.bucket(generateName('bucket'));
+
+  before(() => {
+    if (supportPicoseconds === undefined) {
+      delete process.env.BIGQUERY_PICOSECOND_SUPPORT;
+    } else {
+      process.env.BIGQUERY_PICOSECOND_SUPPORT = 'true';
+    }
+    bigquery = new BigQuery();
+    storage = new Storage();
+    dataset = bigquery.dataset(generateName('dataset'));
+    table = dataset.table(generateName('table'));
+    bucket = storage.bucket(generateName('bucket'));
+  });
+
+  after(() => {
+    process.env.BIGQUERY_PICOSECOND_SUPPORT = originalValue;
+  });
 
-describe('BigQuery', () => {
   const GCLOUD_TESTS_PREFIX = 'nodejs_bq_test';
   const minCreationTime = Date.now().toString();
 
-  const dataset = bigquery.dataset(generateName('dataset'));
-  const table = dataset.table(generateName('table'));
-  const bucket = storage.bucket(generateName('bucket'));
-
   const query = 'SELECT url FROM `publicdata.samples.github_nested` LIMIT 100';
 
   const SCHEMA = [
@@ -2390,3 +2412,7 @@ describe('BigQuery', () => {
     }
   }
 });
+};
+
+runTests(true);
+runTests(undefined);