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For eight exhausting but spirited hours, emotional opponents and supporters showed the deep divisions within Nebraska as they sought to sway the Obama administration on a final decision over an Alberta pipeline that promises thousands of American jobs, but has raised fears of environmental calamity.

In one section of the Lincoln sports auditorium, blackclad youths with nose rings sat in union with stone-faced ranchers in John Deere caps to express fears a leak from the Keystone XL pipeline would threaten the state's eco-sensitive Sand Hills and pollute the vast Ogallala Aquifer.

Across the aisle, executives in pinstriped suits and bluecollar construction workers awaited their turn to promote the economic boost the 2,700-kilometre pipeline's construction would provide throughout the U.S. Great Plains.

"Our family is quite appalled that this has become even an issue, at a time when there is a need for so many jobs," said Patrick Bonnett, an Omaha resident who wants the pipeline built. "It seems nonsensical to even be arguing this issue."

The meeting in Nebraska's capital was one of several the State Department is holding this week across the six U.S. states that the massive Keystone XL pipeline would cross if it is found to be in the U.S. national interest.

Several hundred people turned out to similar meetings in Texas and Kansas earlier this week.

But more than 1,000 people attended Tuesday's hearing in Nebraska, which has become ground zero for the fight over whether the U.S. should import more Canadian oil.

By the time Ken Haar reached the microphone to say his piece about the Keystone XL pipeline, the crowd inside the Pershing Center was growing restless - or rather, annoyed - at the parade of pro-oilsands speakers that had come before him.

Haar, a Nebraska state senator, stared down the pair of U.S. State Department officials conducting the meeting and dispensed with the niceties.

"With all due respect," he told them, "you don't give a damn about Nebraska."

The local lawmaker's blunt remark was typical of the raw emotion on display during the hearing here on Calgary-based TransCanada's $7-billion oilsands pipeline.

The state's Republican governor, Dave Heineman, and its two U.S. senators - Republican Mike Johanns and Democrat Ben Nelson - have led the battle against the pipeline despite a State Department environmental study that concluded it poses no significant risk.

With a final ruling looming later this year, pipeline opponents are pleading with the State Department and TransCanada to move the proposed route farther east to avoid the Sand Hills and the aquifer, which supplies 80 per cent of Nebraska's drinking water.

Robert Jones, a TransCanada vicepresident, told Nebraskans it's too late to change the pipeline's path.

At a news conference before Tuesday's public hearing, Jones blamed environmental groups for sowing safety fear among state residents.

"I believe what has happened here is that outside groups, and within Nebraska - groups that are opposed to development - have used a simple message of fear," Jones said.

Ranchers and landowners along the pipeline route have been told "that if there is a leak, the aquifer will be contaminated and 'it will impact my drinking water' or 'I won't be able to do my irrigation,' " Jones said. "This couldn't be farther from the truth."

The Keystone XL pipeline would carry up to 830,000 barrels of crude oil a day from Hardisty, Alta., to refineries on the Gulf Coast of Texas.

TransCanada officials have maintained the 36-inch (91-centimetre) diameter pipeline will be the safest ever built.

The company cites the State Department's environmental study conclusion that "in no spill incident scenario would the entire Northern High Plains Aquifer system be adversely affected."

Haar accused the State Department of ignoring Nebraska scientists who have warned of catastrophic damage if a major leak polluted the aquifer.

Tony Fulton, a Republican state senator, said he supports the pipeline because it would be an economic boon for the state and also help wean the U.S. off Middle East oil.

But Fulton, too, wants the route changed.

"I simply ask you to pay heed to the people of Nebraska," he told State Department officials.

Jones said the company studied eight alternate routes and the planned route was found to be the least environmentally disruptive, a conclusion the State Department also reached in a recent environmental impact study.

Moreover, Jones said TransCanada would have to go through an entirely new environmental approval process with the U.S. government if it proposed a different route.