 That experience led him to decide that his eventual home would be in St. John’s, Newfoundland.Kierans recognized the increasing "greenhouse effects" since the 1930s “dust bowl” were a clear indication that fast-growing Canadian and United States populations would require a new, large, controllable, environment-friendly source of fresh water to stabilize shared Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River water levels and flows and to end widespread and worsening water deficits and flooding in both countries.To meet this need, Kierans used proven Dutch and Californian experience to design his Great Recycling and Northern Development Canal concept in the 1950s.