I'm opposed to the Keystone Pipeline. So there! Got my viewpoint front and center, right?

The Keystone Pipeline (more rightly known as the Keystone XL Pipeline) is regularly in the news. On March 13, it came up for discussion during a meeting between President Obama and Republican leaders. It is a proposed pipeline extension that would move crude oil from Alberta, Canada to refineries in the United States. So far, President Obama has refused to permit its construction.

You might ask, "How can you be opposed to something that, in 2010, the CEO of TransCanada, the company that plans to build it, said it will create 20,000 American jobs and 'pump' 7 billion dollars into the American economy?" Others have more recently questioned these numbers.

Also, you might comment, "This will reduce our energy dependence on oil from unstable areas notably the Middle East and Nigeria." This all well may be true. Could there possibly be a downside?

Yes. Opponents point to the possibility of pipeline ruptures in sensitive terrain. They also rightly indicate that oil derived from tar sands contains higher concentrations of methane leading to greater releases of carbon to the atmosphere.

So you see there are numerous pros and cons, the obvious economic, environmental, political and other issues. Given these issues, you might expect me to be on the fence. I would be except for still another issue, the emotional issue. Sure, I know emotional issues are probably the least defensible, but I'm going to try anyway.

I'm a native Nebraskan. My father was raised in a wonderful part of the state called "the sandhills" and our family grew up loving their stark beauty. They are sparsely populated ranching country, and not many people outside Nebraska have heard of them. What makes them unique is that they are a 20,000 square mile area of vegetation-stabilized sand dunes that in places are 2,500 feet thick, and that are almost completely saturated with water. They represent the northernmost extension of one of the country's most famous aquifers, the Ogallala. More groundwater probably is stored in the sandhills than in any other formation in the country.

I spent many of my early years with the U. S. Geological Survey working in and around the sandhills, and I've continued my love affair with them. I believe they are one of the country's great ecological treasures and don't want to see them harmed, threatened, or altered.

The pipeline as originally proposed would have passed directly through the sandhills. I can't conceive the environmental damage an oil spill would cause to this wonderful water resource. It might never be cleaned up.

So much local opposition developed that TransCanada proposed an alternate route just around the eastern margin of the sandhills. This route is still a great concern to me. A major spill could still significantly impact this wonderful resource.

To me, personally, the rewards of the pipeline are not worth the risk to the sandhills. There you have it. The water guy who usually tries to visualize all sides of water elated questions has reacted emotionally to this one. Maybe he's human after all!